As many of you may know, there are a lot of people out there who think that asking a large language model to output a block of text counts as “writing.” We here at Massively Overpowered obviously do not because we aren’t idiots. But I also really like breaking things that aren’t mine, so I decided to see what happened when I fed the existing backlog of What Are You Playing into one and asked it to come up with a new one. Before it just returned fatal errors, here’s what it suggested:
- Just the letter “Q” in increasingly aggressive fonts. I know you probably don’t think that a font could be aggressive, but I promise you, this is what was happening.
- An entire column about “how to kiss your werewolf” that I soon realized was actually half-WRUP and half-horrifying werewolf fanfic. The main character was named Tad Westshoe. He was wearing a bunny outfit, and the fanfic was very clear about the structural limits of the outfit. I do not relish this experience.
- The full lyrics to REM’s song “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite” but with every vowel replaced with the word “rutabaga.” Obviously not the vowels in the word “rutabaga” itself. But every other vowel.
- A piece suggesting seven alternate spellings for the word “bark.”
- Pictures of cats jumping into jello molds and then throwing up. I can only assume they were generated by the model. Please do not correct me if I am wrong; this is not a thing I wish to learn about in further detail. Actually, I don’t want to learn about it in the level of detail I already did.
- The final version of the Guide to Hats.
- A count of all the times I said “mange” in one of these introductions, which this introduction has now broken.
- Just reminders that Chris, not me, came up with the name Hissathan “Shrimpfoe” Jones, which is better than I could even attempt, so that was the large language model being mean as heck.
In summary, these are all excellent ideas, and since AI can’t actually write anything, I’m glad I thought of them. You’re not getting the final version of the Guide to Hats, though. You don’t deserve the Guide to Hats.
Bonus question: What’s something that you really loved when you were younger that you now don’t even think about? Show, movie, game, doesn’t matter, just something you fell out of and no longer care for at all.
Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): Exercise games as usual, especially since Niantic crammed G-Max Kingler in weirdly and now I have to drive farther to find a community to actually do this with, yuck. Also gonna work on an outfit for Splatoon 3’s chocolate Splatfest that’s coming up.
When I was a kid I was super into Widget, one of those 90s environmental cartoons. I don’t even wanna try rewatching an episode to see if it holds up. Best to let my inner child keep the positive memories of it and the dream of transforming into an octopus myself because, damn, I really could use more hands!
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna.bsky.social, blog): I’ve been back in Guild Wars 2 this week, so I’ll definitely be in there again over the weekend. I’m probably going to spend some time in Project Gorgon too, just, you know, to soak it in a bit and commune with the people. Seems like the right thing to do.
I was a huge 4X gamer when I was a teenager, and now I find I don’t have the patience for it. I look at the genre and feel nothing. I wish I missed it.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): This weekend is probably going to be devoted to feeling sad about Dauntless, blowing my nose because my sinuses are a leaking mucus factory now, and probably trying to divert myself from all of that with some Final Fantasy XIV, Monster Hunter World, and Satisfactory. Also lots of napping.
Bonus: Anime in general has just… left me behind. I feel like the whole genre has kind of lost the idea of fun and amusement in favor of grimdark nonsense or thinly veiled porno. I genuinely have grown up well past it and continue to harp about the old series that I liked instead of trying new ones.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): A very small amount of FFXIV and a fairly substantial amount of Warframe are on the docket for the weekend, which is actually pretty normal for me at this point. Maybe some extra sleep? I don’t know. I’ve also been toying with some single-player stuff.
There are a lot of things I was into when I was younger that I am no longer into now, but I don’t feel any resentment or anything; like, there’s no way I’m going back to buying comics on a monthly basis any time soon, but I don’t regret being into comics and I still relish the weirdness of them. But I was, in fact, really into the X-Files when I was younger and I no longer care. At all. Pretty much as soon as I lost track of it I completely ceased to think about it beyond being a cultural artifact. It’s one of the few things I’ve completely left behind that I haven’t actively forgotten.
Tyler Edwards (blog): I’ve re-upped my World of Warcraft sub. Probably could have waited a bit longer as I’m already pretty much done with Siren Isle, but I’m still finding odds and ends to busy myself with. Despite constant protestations to the contrary, I am also still playing The First Descendant on the side.
Bonus: First thing that comes to mind is Animorphs. I was super into both the show and the books for at least a year or two when I was a kid, but I completely lost interest after a while.
Every Saturday, join the Massively OP community and staff for What Are You Playing, our roundup of what MMORPGs and other games we’re hoping to play this weekend (with a bonus question or two for our amusement). Tell us what you’re up to! Go off-topic! And don’t forget to have fun!
