I actually have a contrary opinion on AI usage or maybe I’m not fully understanding what is being discussed or critiqued here, but I don’t think using something like ChatGPT is a horrible evil. From my years of enjoying this hobby, my experience shows me that there are three major points I need to develop to contribute good writing to the stories being woven together with those I am RPing with.
First, it’s creativity and imagination with the genre and game that you are participating in. Being able to take in the theme and metaplots, understanding the character you’ve selected, then come up with how your character would act and participate in the scenes and overall fictional world. Second, it’s translating that creativity, imagination, thoughts, and ideas into written form that is both enjoyable and clear for everyone to read. Lastly, it’s being able to cooperate with the community in the game. Coordinating with the staff and cooperating to your fellow players to help create and develop these stories and adventures.
For me, the first part I gained since I was a kid. My past time when I was young was reading a lot of novels, limited television and video games (strict parents growing up so no going out to party or too much tv/gaming). So my brain was already soaked in fantasy and sci-fi fiction. The second part took years of not just reading but also RPing, going from a newbie RPer that wrote probably very cringe and rough poses to something that was more palatable to everyone. The last part also took years as well as I had to shift from a more immature mentality of my character is the main character that I have to build up and shine to games being a cooperative experience where everyone works together to create a brilliant story. This last part has more to do with being more mature with age and experience and slowly developing a better understanding of the hobby.
So my “starting stats” into the hobby were probably a high part 1, low part 2, low part 3. Others may have different starts or a similar one like me. My view on ChatGPT is that it’s a tool, one that can help a lot with part 2. If someone writes their pose and feeds it so it corrects grammar, makes it flow better, etc., I don’t think that is a bad thing. It may even help with part 1 if it can assist the RPer with either a better understanding of the theme, plot, story or provide a different context, I don’t believe it’s a bad thing either. I highly doubt it can help with part 3 since that’s more about the player themselves and their own development.
So my views of ChatGPT usage do not seem to be a bad one, it opens the door to more people to participate and contribute without worrying that their writing sucks or will be laughed at. To me, that’s not a bad thing and if there are more people participating and adding to the story, that’s also not a bad thing. I’m not sure who will be wasting time having ChatGPT just come up with poses completely by itself and just copy pasting into the game, so to me, the concern may be a bit overblown. The final point is that maybe my reading palette is just bland where I haven’t been able to tell the difference between a pose generated by AI or one written by a person, or to the point where it is ruining my enjoyment. Just like I can’t taste the difference between a $1000 wine or a $100 wine.