You know what i find absolutely insane?
I went to YouTube, and my search query is simple "Using ChatGPT for fun". I didn't get anything related to that query, I got hundreds of videos on how to be productive with GPT, and people expirementing with coding with GPT, but that wasn't exactly what I was looking for. After a few more similar queries I actually gave up.
What I was looking for was more thought-experiment like prompts. This is something I've been doing with GPT for years now, and I don't hear a lot of people talk about these types of applications except for in one community: Dungeons and Dragons/Table Top. It may or may not come to a surprise to you that you can use GPT as your very own dungeon master, and that can be fun! As a bonus with GPT 5.2, and extended memory context with paid plans, you can take this mechanic very far. Still, even though I can find this type of content online, I come to you with some other 'games' you can play with GPT that aren't only just as fun, but can invoke thought and actually teach you something as well.
Thought Experiments as text-based games using ChatGPT.
What do I mean? Well I'm glad you asked.
We've all had these conversations:
If you had a time machine where would you go and what would you do?
If you were stranded on a small remote island and could only take a backpack full of items what would you take and what would you do to survive?
What would you do if the zombie apocalypse started right now?
Playing these games with GPT are quite the experience. Once I asked GPT to transport me to a random spot in American history. It sent me to colonial Carolina, where not only did i learn quite a bit about some key figures in America's past, I also had an incredibly fun and engaging experience trying to become the king of America. I probably spent 20 hours alone in this scenario, just because I was having so much fun.
It is definitely something I will be doing again in the future, In fact if you want to take it a few steps further, create the rules you want GPT to follow; How strict you want it to be with what is/isn't allowed, and how strictly to adhere to what would and would not be possible. I like uploading my rules sheet to a project folder as .txt file, and having the custom instructions in the project dictate how to use my uploaded documents.
To take this concept to the max, create your own world in a GPT project folder! I created a full world with races, regions, religions and political conflict, a starting scene, a creature index, a character index, Game loop rules, a manual for the ai to follow, and a progression system so my character can level up. each document was uploaded to a GPT project and this game RULED. I modeled it loosely off how Skyrim and Dungeons and Dragons play. But I implore you to do this on your own, and create your own world or games.
It's fascinating to me that these use-cases are not as popular as some of the other GPT uses, I've even forfeited video-games in my free time to advance more in my text based games.
I do believe this use-case will be more prevelant in the future, maybe even this year. I think that AI as a product is still very new, and those of us who use it and learn it every day may understand the ever-evolving possibilities, but only a small amount of the population are actually exposed and not afraid of either it's complexity, or it's dominance. Much like the beginning of the internet was all information and blog pages, and years later began being used for e-commerce, media and gaming.
We're just at the information and blog phase of AI.
If any of you are interested in my game-loop and rules for this type of game, I'll be releasing them in a future newsletter.