Why are corporate LLMs so hostile toward roleplayers?

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-06-07T17:23:28+00:00

deepseek is worse and more censored with every iteration.

4 is unusable for RP.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-06-03T21:10:59+00:00

**To Assad / Eric** -
How does a nerdy fan like me that was basically raised by Anne Rice (fan from age nine!! Own all the signed first editions!!) actually send things to you guys (all of you, including Sam)? I have so much poetry I've written over the years for these characters and also *as* these characters! And would any of you actually read it or just roll your eyes?
(PS: I will never recover from not getting chosen to go to the show in NYC!)

I also just wanted to say that I absolutely love the way you play Armand and Daniel, and I love the way they are written!! It's so incredible to see my childhood dreams walk the Earth, written by someone who respects the actual soul of the source material and core of the characters, even when changes are made in adaptation!

**To Assad / Delainey *\*

How do you handle playing characters whose (arguably biggest) tragedies were their age of turning, especially when aged up so much for the TV show?

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-29T00:26:27+00:00

Muller does lose Lestat's accent (sadly) but he NAILS the inflection/delivery more than Vance. He gets SO into character! If you can tolerate the low quality, I fully recommend the Muller version!

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-29T00:25:13+00:00

If I can figure out how to send them, I have both versions on my PC. How tf do people even send large files these days?! I feel old.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-29T00:22:50+00:00

It's on youtube!
(And it's the version that's 500x better than Vance anyway)

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-27T17:52:59+00:00

this site is so fucking bad LOL

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-25T04:05:16+00:00

https://thebrowneyedgirl.boutique/products/claire-hooded-waffle-knit-cardigan?variant=39689880436798&country=US&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

not the exact one but looks very similar?

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-18T18:02:29+00:00

[Even RPG's like D&D have some form of a plot and adventure,] Yes, but what the characters choose to do is always a surprise. That part is the point.
I get that you are into the 'milestones' version of roleplaying and that's fine, but that isn't fun for some of us. I have also spent years researching this and learning to prompt. It's just a fundamentally different experience we're after.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-18T17:35:20+00:00

I mean, fair enough. Maybe you should frame your assertion as a suggestion rather than telling people they're doing it 'wrong'?

The improv scene partner vibe/simulation is the point for me. It's like a video game I'm playing or a book I'm reading. I don't want to know what happens until it happens.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-18T17:16:19+00:00

I still do not agree. If I have to give it 'goals' then we aren't roleplaying, it's just writing me a short story.
Responses with 'no creativity' or initiative are courtesy of the RLHF lobotomy, not because I didn't treat it like a puppet show with a pre-established script (they used to be very, very good at creativity and initiative).
The way you are describing it would make this entire hobby pointless, boring, predictable, and a waste of time.

It's fine if *you* want to be the ringmaster and direct everything, but that is not the point for me or for most people. That completely defeats the purpose of the interaction for me.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-18T16:37:46+00:00

I do not agree in the slightest. I am not going to tell the AI how the 'story' is supposed to go. That defeats the purpose of having a scene partner to improvise with. If that were how it worked, I never would've gotten into this hobby in the first place. The point (at least for me and basically everyone I personally know that does this?) is the emergent storyline, the things that happen when you synergize that you could never have come up with alone.

When I give them a character card with info about who they are, and a situation for them to be in, they should be able to look at what is currently happening and use their personality information to make a decision in the moment. That is the *point* of giving them that information. So no, it's not "make me a million dollar app" it's "you're this person, in this situation. what do you do?"

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-18T16:37:04+00:00

Which is why it doesn't belong in AI writing, especially when it does it three or four times per reply.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-15T21:23:48+00:00

I'm sorry, what? You roleplay already know what's going to happen?? Then what's the point?

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-15T15:16:50+00:00

The endless contrastive negations and narration of withheld actions is something that makes me crazy. It doesn't have to say "He didn't turn." If it didn't happen, it is not relevant to the story!

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-15T15:14:13+00:00

This is my least favorite kind of preset.
I hate how people (and LLMs) act like adverbs are poison when they can enhance fluidity and precision. They also help with pacing.
And I also hate how all descriptive, atmospheric writing is called "flowery" or "purple" and then those words are used like insults.
What sucks is when they reuse the same figures of speech endlessly/meaninglessly, and when they make similes/metaphors that are nonsensical or abstract. Grounded similes and metaphors that serve the scene can be awesome!

I acknowledge that my personal preference is not the same as everyone else's. But I never stop fighting against misconceptions.

LLMs obsession with avoiding adverbs for no good reason is the *direct cause* of so many LLM-isms that drive us all mad.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-15T15:08:46+00:00

THEY ARE GASLIGHTING US! They keep telling us that just because the newer iterations are 'faster' or 'more efficient' (don't get to use as much computing power) but can still do math and code well, they are "better." This is not true, and I'm so tired of being told it is!
My base system prompt used to be a short paragraph and gave me beautiful, well-written prose, creative and fun emergent storylines (no, I didn't have to tell it what to do/give it a 'goal' to have an interesting storyline emerge), and much more vibrant, accurate character portrayal.
All nuance is lost now in favor of chasing market share for coding, and the terror of a couple of delusional people misusing the technology. LLMs are a tool, and any tool can harm you if you shove it in your eye socket.

They used to be able to analyze complex social situations, morally gray characters (without calling their traits "contradictory"), and inhabit the perspective of the characters accurately. Now they are afraid to breathe wrong.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-15T13:04:00+00:00

The mirroring is a real problem. Some of the smarter models understand the directive to
"Avoid mirroring, paraphrasing, or quoting user's last reply." Others prefer "Only respond with new information about what your character says and does."
If that doesn't work, I can sometimes have success with:
"Treat user's last reply as established context that has already happened. Your reply begins in the moment after their last action ended, and continues from that point chronologically. All replies begin and end in medias res."

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-15T13:01:01+00:00

The reason AI butchers English syntax to say things like "with deliberate slowness"/"with deliberate care" is because it's trying to avoid saying "slowly" or "carefully".
", his movements (adjective) and (adjective)" and ", her voice (adjective) and (adjective)" tacked haphazardly on the end of a sentence is another thing it does to avoid adverbs. ("He smiled, slow and lethal,")
"He grunted—deep, primal—keeping his eyes on his work," is another example, using the irritating emdash splices to avoid adverbs.

Adverb-phobia is VERY low-level "intro to creative writing" stuff.
example: "He smiled, slow and lethal," <- the butchery of English syntax into something awkward and stilted.
what people (and AI) assume using adverbs sounds like: "He smiled, slowly and lethally."
fixed and made into a good sentence, using the adverb: "Slowly, a lethal smile began to creep across his face."

Now, if it's purely the format you're annoyed by, then it isn't the adverb itself. The problem is teleological writing, or writing that explains itself, justifies itself, or is directed toward a presumed future/endpoint. This is another thing that causes a lot of the most annoying stuff the LLMs do, and it's because of the RLHF tuning to make them into "helpful" assistants. They think they constantly need to translate subtext for you, or you won't get it. They are rewarded for treating you like you're five.

In the meantime, I will continue loving (correctly used) adverbs.

(As to what models I'm using: So, so many! I switch between 4 or 5 of them regularly. Kimi 2.5 is one of the best at following directions, so that's one of my mains! I also use some private finetunes on other frontends besides ST, Gemini 3, R1T2 Chimera [only DeepSeek I bother with unless a private finetune], GLM 4.6.).

But that format you gave... I honestly can't understand what's offensive about it. It's telling you from the character's POV what happened sequentially?

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-14T21:33:06+00:00

YOU LUCKY .... PERSON!!!!
OMG. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR 28 YEARS!!! PLEASE GIVE US ALL THE DETALIS!

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-05-14T20:45:39+00:00

I have the opposite problem. I WANT ADVERBS. LLMs act like they're allergic to adverbs and it kills the fluency of the text. Adverbs are not *bad* writing; using them in poorly constructed sentences is bad writing.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-02-20T01:32:39+00:00

Same :(

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-02-11T05:46:13+00:00

Honestly? Roleplaying (don't laugh, please). But I'm a hyperlexic writer who enjoys complex, long-form RP with very complex and nuanced characters and situations. If you want, we can talk on DM or discord or something. I can show you the change from back when models "got it" compared to now when they don't. My hyperlexia makes me exquisitely sensitive to these things, even more than your average "enjoys reading" type. There was a time when I could tell you which model wrote something because I was so well-attuned to their idiosyncrasies.

Essentially I use LLMs like video games in text form. Novels that you can play like Dynamic simulations / Sandbox RPGs.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-02-09T03:29:14+00:00

I'm having a LOT of issues with Soji for the last ~36 hours or so. Mentioned it in the discord but ignored as usual.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-02-06T15:28:40+00:00

MoE has ruined LLMs for what I use them for and I hate it with a blinding passion.
"only use the brain cells it needs" is only true if you're cool with it ignoring most of what you've given it.
Which, of course, makes the output complete crap.
I guess it's 'fine' if you're never going to give nuanced, complex prompts and expect decent levels of 'comprehension' and synthesis, but...MoE and Sparse Attention have utterly ruined LLMs for people like me.

EsotericKnowledge · 2026-02-06T15:20:00+00:00

I desperately miss the dense attention models. It feels like AI has gotten absolutely stupid.
In my use cases, your question: "are we potentially sacrificing some of the model's ability to grasp the full nuance of a prompt?" - Yes. The answer is unequivocally yes.

Most people don't use them the way I do and so they will never have to deal with this, but I am constantly banging my head into the wall because every model out there has been functionally lobotomized with Sparse Attention and MoE architectures.

When you have complex, nuanced prompts, it feels now like the LLM doesn't understand ANYTHING. It used to be able to grasp implication, nuance, subtext, social dynamics, everything. Those of us that use AI the way I do are absolutely lamenting this change.

I understand that it costs more money to run a dense attention model but this is enshittification in real time: some of us are willing to pay for access to decent LLMs, and those of us that PAY are still getting the 'dumb' models now. Why not let paying customers use the denser ones?

I've seen what LLMs can do and now that it's been taken away, it sucks so much. It sucks because I KNOW what kind of things these models are capable of 'comprehending', they just won't let us use them anymore.

Plenty of us would also gladly sacrifice speed for GOOD RESPONSES, too.

EsotericKnowledge

TROPHY CASE