Video games where you can talk to characters about 'anything' are actually less fun and more exhausting than games with scripts.
April 16, 2026
Original Paper
The Double-Edged Sword of Open-Ended Interaction: How LLM-Driven NPCs Affect Players' Cognitive Load and Gaming Experience
arXiv · 2604.10107
The Takeaway
The dream of gaming has always been NPCs (non-player characters) that you can have natural, unscripted conversations with. However, testing LLM-driven characters showed that this 'infinite freedom' significantly spikes the player’s cognitive load. Because the characters are unpredictable, players have to work much harder to interact, which actually makes the experience more tiring and less satisfying. We assumed total freedom was the goal, but it turns out that 'invisible walls' and scripts are what make games relaxing. For developers, this means more technology doesn't always equal more fun.
From the abstract
This study examines how large language model-driven non-player characters (LLM-NPCs) affect players' cognitive load and gaming experience, with a particular focus on the underlying psychological mechanisms, differences across task scenarios, and the role of individual traits. Conducting a randomized between-subject experiment (N=130) in a self-developed game prototype "Campus Culture Week", we compared player interactions with LLM-NPCs and traditional pre-scripted NPCs across multiple interactiv