{"id":1643859,"date":"2026-07-24T21:14:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pNmfuuVwVmV7wa35NvB9tZ"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:14:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:14:39","slug":"mmo-life-sim-seeds-ai-powered-avatars-prove-once-again-that-nothing-shatters-immersion-quicker-than-crappy-chatbot-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/mmo-life-sim-seeds-ai-powered-avatars-prove-once-again-that-nothing-shatters-immersion-quicker-than-crappy-chatbot-dialogue\/","title":{"rendered":"MMO life sim Seed’s AI-powered avatars prove once again that nothing shatters immersion quicker than crappy chatbot dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In theory, I get the appeal of an NPC powered by AI. What if Lydia from Skyrim could talk endlessly about topics other than your shared inventory and could offer more than the handful of phrases she shouts at enemy bandits? I like the idea of characters whose interactions don’t end just because their scripts do. It’s an intriguing concept.<\/p>\n

The reality is that, at least for now, the AI solutions I’ve seen just don’t work all that well. AI-powered NPCs can talk and talk and talk, that’s for damn sure. But they’re not saying anything worth listening to.<\/p>\n

A while back I took a modded, ChatGPT-powered companion with me to see if the AI that can supposedly pass college entrance exams could solve the easiest puzzle in Skyrim. Spoiler: it absolutely couldn’t<\/a>, and the AI character I spent all that time with wasn’t a convincing conversationalist, either.<\/p>\n

More recently I’ve been playing Seed<\/a>, an MMO colony sim from Klang Games that just arrived in early access after about a decade of development. In Seed you create a seedling, a Sims-like avatar, who shares the world with other players’ seedlings, and they can converse with you and each other using Seed’s AI.<\/p>\n

My first AI interaction was actually a good one. During character creation I noticed seedlings had very long legs and short torsos, making it look like my avatar was wearing extremely high-waisted jeans. I decided to ask him about it, and this is a game where you can absolutely ask whatever the heck you want. It’s even kind of cute because when I type a question, he’ll take a little phone out and text me back.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Klang)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Hi!! I’m so happy to finally be talking to you!” my seedling said.<\/p>\n

“Hey why are you so high-waisted” I typed.<\/p>\n

“Everyone’s wearing high-waisted right now! It’s like, totally the trend\u2026 Is it\u2026 not looking good?”<\/p>\n

I mean, that’s a great response. I couldn’t ask a character in Skyrim or The Sims or any other game I can think of a question about the length of their legs or the equator of their jeans. It’s genuinely fun that you can do that in Seed.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Klang)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But it mostly went downhill from there, and after a few hours it became hard not to see this first amusing interaction as just dumb luck that Seed’s AI stumbled on an entertaining response. The rest of my conversations with both my doppelganger, and between my seedling and other player-made seedlings, didn’t go well at all.<\/p>\n

Here’s a conversation (seedlings use text bubbles, not spoken words) between my seedling and the seedling of another player. Note that neither I nor the other player are typing these messages, it’s all Seed’s AI. The other player wasn’t even online: seedlings are persistent in the world even when the player isn’t around.<\/p>\n