Dear Andruid,
In the text-based roleplaying game I play, I see more and more players with character and item descriptions that were clearly written by ChatGPT. These AI-generated descriptions all sound the same. Worse, they’re devoid of personal touch or creativity. They’re bringing down the quality of the game, and it’s ruining my experience.
Shouldn’t players in a text-based game embrace creative writing and use the game as a chance to hone their writing skills? Otherwise, it seems like they’re missing the point and playing for the wrong reasons.
– Annoyed Roleplayer
Thoughts on AI-written content and its impacts
Dear Annoyed Roleplayer,
I can understand your frustration, and when I think about it, the quality of AI writing doesn’t appear to be the main issue here. After all, one could argue that actual humans have written much worse.
Rather, this seems more about values, authenticity, and roleplay immersion with other players.
When we notice the telltale signs of ChatGPT, we’re immediately yanked out of the fictional world and into the real one. The immersion is broken, and the experience feels fake.
We’re putting in the effort, so why aren’t they?
That said, I think it’s important to recognize that not everyone plays text-based roleplaying games for the same reasons.
Honing one’s writing skills is certainly a reason, as is creative expression, but these aren’t the only reasons – or even the most important ones to all players.
Players care about different things
Some players are more interested in meeting people and interacting via text in a cool fictional setting. They don’t necessarily want to spend an hour alone in a word processor, hand-crafting descriptions that will showcase their creativity and unique style as an author.
Other players may lack confidence in their writing. They may be relying on ChatGPT because they genuinely feel that the content produced by AI is better than what they might come up with themselves, and they don’t want to disappoint their fellow players.
Whatever the case, I don’t think the best response is to shame players, especially if what they’re doing isn’t against the game’s rules.
Calling players who use AI lazy, excluding them from RP, and convincing all your friends to do the same won’t fix the problem. It’ll only create a toxic atmosphere around your favorite game and make it a worse place to play.
Instead, I would start by asking staff to publicly state their stance on the use of AI.
How and why to communicate the issue to staff
Explain to staff how AI-written content detracts from the experience, and provide them with concrete examples from different aspects of the game, including emotes and static descriptions.
Also, show them some precedents: point to examples of similar games that have discouraged or banned the use of AI, and why.
Here’s one I recently came across:
On Oct 28, 2025 at 8:54pm, Editor in Chief posted on the SuperMUD forums:
“SuperMUD was created without the use of generative AI. Our game is top-to-bottom painstakingly crafted by human hands. This didn’t happen by accident — it was a conscious decision on the part of the development team.
Ultimately, the views of any creator will in some form be reflected in their projects, and SuperMUD’s creators hold strong views about the use of generative AI within creative spaces.
In short: it doesn’t interest us and it isn’t welcome here.
Beyond the ethical, environmental, and economic concerns surrounding genAI, our team’s primary issue with it sits closer to home. We believe that while unassisted human voices may produce a messier, less polished end result, they also create a richer, deeper, more powerful narrative experience. We want SuperMUD to be a playground for those experiences. We didn’t build it for Claude and his friends. We built it for us and for you.
One common argument in favor of the use of AI is how significantly it improves one’s workflow, and that’s valid. I’ve used it this way too. But our position is that we don’t log into roleplaying games to be productive and efficient. We’re here to be immersed, to tell a story, and to make magic with people who share our passion.
We invite you to return to a simpler time not so very long ago. Come interact with a compelling game world the way we all used to. Prioritize voice and authenticity over yield and precision. Handcraft your roleplay experience together with us, not via a middleman.
It’s okay not to agree with these views and to hold opposing ones yourself; we aren’t trying to put anyone down. If you insist that you can’t participate in this pursuit without the use of genAI, that’s fine, we understand. We ask only that you respect the environment we’ve spent years building by hand just for the simple joy of sharing it with you.
Make use of it all you want elsewhere, but please don’t bring genAI content to SuperMUD. We don’t want it here.
How do you intend to enforce this position?
Realistically speaking: we can’t. It’s simple enough to mask the use of generative AI and there’s nothing we can really do about that. Worse still, the use of an AI detector tool may result in false positives that end up punishing innocent players, and the loss of even one such person is too many in our books. Instead, we’ve chosen to make our stance clear and trust that our community will respect it and support us.”
(To read the full thread, visit the SuperMUD forums.)
Staff may not want to police AI-written content, but their opinions can still influence players and guide their behavior.
Even if staff do nothing, you’ll have at least communicated your concerns, and they’ll be better informed. It may even spark some productive discussions with the playerbase.
Another thing you can do is lead by example. Instead of labeling other players, try to be understanding and coach them away from relying on ChatGPT.
Share examples of good player-written descriptions and tips to help them write their own. When you encounter inspiring text, give the author kudos.
And make sure players know that even if their original content isn’t perfect, it’s still appreciated because it came from them.
To share a quote from a reading group I’m in:
“These are not Games About Writing, they are Writing Games. You write to play the game, but it’s not about writing. If I wanted to get better at writing, I would sit alone and write a thing and then post it and ask people to critique it. That’s not what MUSHing is about: it’s about the shared experience of playing the game with another person. I would take someone’s well-intentioned but typo-filled prose over the most florid AI output any day.”
— Trashcan, roleplayer
One more step you can take is to explain to players how they can use AI more responsibly.
For instance, as a writing guide rather than a writing replacement. Teach them the difference, and show them how it’s done.
And lastly, if things don’t get better despite your earnest efforts, you can take a stand and vote with your feet.
There’s no need to keep playing a game that continually frustrates and disappoints you, no matter how much time you’ve already sunk into it.
Bottom line: you can’t control what other players want out of a roleplaying game or how staff decide to run it, but you can choose what kind of influence you want to have on the community.
– Andruid
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