{"id":625414,"date":"2023-04-04T09:50:02","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T14:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/04\/i-brought-chatgpt-to-the-board-game-world-is-it-ready-for-game-night\/"},"modified":"2023-04-04T09:50:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T14:50:02","slug":"i-brought-chatgpt-to-the-board-game-world-is-it-ready-for-game-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/04\/i-brought-chatgpt-to-the-board-game-world-is-it-ready-for-game-night\/","title":{"rendered":"I brought ChatGPT to the board game world. Is it ready for game night?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\n\t\tI brought ChatGPT to the board game world. Is it ready for game night?\t<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
\n

We all know that ChatGPT<\/a> is great at speeding up mundane tasks. What could be drier than explaining the rules of a complicated game at board game night?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no substitute for just knowing<\/em> the game, but being able to reach for AI instead of the rulebook could make things a whole lot easier. Nothing derails a great game of Twilight Imperium<\/a> like breaking out the Living Rules and endlessly scrolling. So, if I were to bring ChatGPT to board game night, I could definitely see it coming in handy. But before I subjected my friends to a robot reading them the rules, I decided to test it out with some basic questions to see if it was up to snuff.<\/p>\n

<\/a>A defined ruleset sounds ideal<\/h2>\n

I have no idea why ChatGPT knows the rules of so many games, but it does. Or at least thinks<\/em> it does. While it might be tricky to find an online manual for some of my collection, ChatGPT seems to have it all \u2014 some of those billions of data points it was trained on reportedly included the errata for something as obscure as the third Battlestar Galactica expansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s great, though, because it should know all the rules I don\u2019t, right? Within the limited, constrained, and very particular environment of a board game, ChatGPT with its limited understanding of anything, but extensive knowledge of certain topics, should be great at it.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as with everything else ChatGPT confidently posits to know, it\u2019s often not quite right, and sometimes it\u2019s outright wrong.<\/p>\n

\"ChatGPT<\/figure>\n

The initial answer is quite correct: you don\u2019t<\/em> add the dice to the hunt pool. But hunt tiles aren\u2019t added every turn. Maybe it\u2019d be better if I had ChatGPT tell me where in the rulebook I can find this information?<\/p>\n

\"Asking<\/figure>\n

Hmm. Apparently putting it on the spot means it then corrects itself and gets the rule more wrong than it did before. It thinks there might be multiple \u201cGandalfs\u201d in the Fellowship, and that there are special \u201cWill of the West,\u201d dice, rather than that being one of the possible results on the game\u2019s action dice.<\/p>\n

It then goes on double down on that error by citing a page in the rulebook that doesn\u2019t have anything to do with \u201cThe Hunt.\u201d There\u2019s a section called \u201cThe Hunt For the Ring,\u201d but it\u2019s not until Page 40.<\/p>\n

\"War<\/figure>\n

But maybe this isn\u2019t ChatGPT\u2019s best game. Let\u2019s give it one more chance to help with a game that\u2019s somehow even bigger and more complicated than War of the Ring: Twilight Imperium.<\/p>\n

\"ChatGPT<\/figure>\n

Here, ChatGPT does an admirable job, in that it does get the answer right, but for the wrong reasons. You can\u2019t take a home system because you can\u2019t invade it, not because you can\u2019t move ships there.<\/p>\n

If that seems pedantic, I get it. I don\u2019t like telling my friend they can\u2019t do something because they\u2019ve misunderstood the very specifically worded text on the card they\u2019ve played. These details matter in games, and if I\u2019m going to get ChatGPT to do it for me, I need to be able to fully trust it.<\/p>\n

<\/a>It\u2019s back to reading the rulebooks over and over<\/h2>\n

This was just a snippet of my time quizzing ChatGPT on how to play my favorite games. It knew how to launch ships in Battlestar Galactica, even if it wasn\u2019t clear what part of your turn you do it in. It had a good idea of how to get cave tokens in Quest for El Dorado, but was very wrong on the cost you had to pay for them.<\/p>\n

It did know Kingdom Death: Monster quite well, though, accurately reporting the stats of some of the monsters, and even making suggestions on how to modify those stats to my advantage.<\/p>\n

It was a fun exercise seeing what ChatGPT knows about games, and it feels like one area where in the future, it could be invaluable. It wouldn\u2019t even need to know all games. I can imagine a scenario where game publishers could have their own AI to help teach you their games, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it could act as a stand-in player one day too.<\/p>\n

And who knows, maybe GPT-4<\/a> in ChatGPT Plus<\/a> would have already solved this problem.<\/p>\n

For now though, since I can\u2019t trust it, it\u2019s back to reading rulebooks on the toilet so that when one of the players has a question, I can answer it. Because ChatGPT can\u2019t. Yet.<\/p>\n

\n\tEditors’ Recommendations<\/h4>\n