Yes, pretty much so, and it is not a recent development.
I don't think I'd seen an article from Erasmatazz for like 20-25 years. At that time, Crawford was making a lot of grandiose statements about "Erasmatron", his interactive storytelling system that would be the first actual expression of art on computers. And when it was released, it turned out to be just laughably crude and mechanistic compared to what the interactive fiction community (all of them hobbyists at the time) was producing at the time. He clearly had no idea of what the state of the art was in that domain, nor any interest in understanding it.
> He clearly had no idea of what the state of the art was in that domain, nor any interest in understanding it.
I think this is the most frustrating thing about these type of characters. They are usually very clever people, but by refusing to engage with people they look down on, they find themselves further and further entrenched in a narrow view - the ideas become stale without partnerships. Then comes the frustration and bitterness that no one is recognising their mastery while the world moves on. They are left isolated on an idea island and can only talk in terms of what they achieved decades ago. I suppose the idea of representing yourself online as one of the greatest scholars of the Renaissance unironically(?) says it all.
I once read an essay about Wolfram that came across a bit like this, the difference being that he managed to create a following against the odds and a earn a living from it.
As someone who followed his work closely, I think that is an over-exaggeration.
With his Erasmatron, he did make many working prototypes, and recruited a very talented IF-author to try and build storyworlds with him in that tool and guide its development through that process.
The Erasmatron is still a very interesting idea that hasn't been successfully applied yet. Whether it's due to a deep weakness in the idea, or that the right execution hasn't been found yet, I don't know.
What do you feel is the core idea of the Erasmatron that is not already well-captured by modern IF, (digital or analog) consims, or (digital or analog) roleplaying games?
If the answer is "each of those does some subset of things well but the Erasmatron would do everything well" (and this is the position I implicitly ascribe to Crawford after trying to make sense of his last 15 years of writing / commentary), do you really think that kind of scope is a desirable artistic goal, let alone feasible?
What I have seen attempted by the Erasmatron that I haven't seen in "real" games yet, is the ability to create a dramatic setting, with scenes and actors, where the actors are driven by "decorated" simulations.
Decorated simulation meaning that the actor has a data representation of their personality, behavior and motivation, which causes all their actions and interactions with other actors. "Decorated" meaning the story author can define or guide how these interactions - if they happen - will be described.
Rimworld is an example that feels very close. People love and hate each other, get into fights, parties, and go on depressed drug binges. The biggest difference from Erasmatron is that the setting is random (or "procedural" as the kids call it these days) and affected by random events. The interactions run as they may, and are not guided by a world author's desire for a specific setting or dramatic arc.
If Erasmatron it was fully applied as imagined, it would allow you to stage Romeo and Juliet, but explore what happens if Romeo leaves Juliet alone for a week until things calm down, and work on the family relationships. It's quite lofty, but I believe we can still get closer to it.
We have gotten a lot closer to it, much more than Rimworld.
- World models with motivation-driven characters is a common subgenre of IF; you could do worse than starting with Galatea which is seminal and still very good. The author is an acquaintance of Crawford, and is aligned with his stated goals - you can read her critique of his book[0] and one of his more recent tools[1]. She has previously designed Versu, an AI-driven narrative engine, and has lauded work in virtually every major narrative game design tool.
- Façade did this for limited actors in a navigable virtual space in 2005.
- Elsinore was a popular game from 2019 that did this, also graphically, for Hamlet.
> If Erasmatron it was fully applied as imagined, it would allow you to stage Romeo and Juliet, but explore what happens if Romeo leaves Juliet alone for a week until things calm down, and work on the family relationships. It's quite lofty, but I believe we can still get closer to it.
This is an AGI fantasy, and definitely not the endgame of the Erasmatron. It will not be achieved by Crawford's authoring tools, and he refuses to consider even basic refinements to the UX of his authoring tools, let alone any paradigm shift. It will probably be achieved ~never, and would not be artistically interesting even if it was.
I don't think I'd seen an article from Erasmatazz for like 20-25 years. At that time, Crawford was making a lot of grandiose statements about "Erasmatron", his interactive storytelling system that would be the first actual expression of art on computers. And when it was released, it turned out to be just laughably crude and mechanistic compared to what the interactive fiction community (all of them hobbyists at the time) was producing at the time. He clearly had no idea of what the state of the art was in that domain, nor any interest in understanding it.