This could have been a great example of how machine learning, not AI, could make games more accessible. Key word parsing has been around a long time. I don’t get how they messed this up so bad. But leave it to Square...

This one’s not on Kotaku. It’s on SE for calling it an AI Tech Preview in the Steam game title.

This is NLP, which I wouldn’t call an AI of any kind.

Just what I was thinking. Would feel like a reach to lump it in with the broader AI art fad, were it not Square Enix, and that probably the reason the project happened at all.

Man, this sounds like a good use for a LLM. It’s a shame it’s so poorly implemented here.

See, I’m not sure I agree with the idea that Zahn’s stuff was more sci-fi than the OT. If anything, I’d argue that one thing I liked about Heir over the prequels was that heir kept a stronger mystical vibe than the prequels. It had magic beasts, feudal societies, evil double, a mysterious, quasi-supernatural assasin,…

It's worth noting that the title "heir to the empire" doesn't necessarily just refer to Thrawn. It could also mean C'boath the cloned dark jedi, Mara Jade, trained by the emperor and seeking to enact his last command , or if you believe the Noghri: Leia, the daughter and heir of tjeir lord Darth Vader. That ambiguity…

In current continuity, there is no real space for the introspection and evolution of the Imperial Remnant as seen in the old EU

“I never read more than 10% of the EU, but my sense is that Zahn’s trilogy was better than almost all of it, and in being so great, it helped usher in all the rest.”

I read virtually all of it at one point or another, and generally liked it for what it was, but this is correct - his trilogy remained the high point…

The Heir to the Empire trilogy isn’t just contradicted by tge sequels - it’s also contradicted by the prequels.

If it wasn’t for Timothy Zahn and his blue Grand Admiral, we wouldn’t be looking at Star Wars in the same way now. The success of the Heir to the Empire series in the early 90s started the publishing re-birth of the whole thing and brought George Lucas’ interest back as well.

Neil Gaiman has been very vocal on social media about asking people to STOP sending him their fanfiction and ideas. Because then he has to be responsible for remembering it and not executing on any idea that occurs to him that is too close to it.

The “small guy” is a hack trying to make easy money and doesn’t have a leg to stand on. I’m all for protecting individual interests over a monolith like Amazon, but not all small guys are good people/in the right.

And why he never got a response.

Yeah, my bad. For some reason I thought they did not have the rights to the Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit (probably because I assumed that if they did that’s what they would’ve adapted). It’s still a weird slice of the pie but it really only becomes complicated due to the specific era in which their show takes place.

My understanding is they have TV rights (not film or video game) to The Lord of the Rings (but not The Hobbit/The Silmarillion/etc). I was under the impression that anything mentioned in the Appendices is fair game, since that’s technically part of The Lord of the Rings specifically.

He copyrighted the name in 2017 and sent the Tolkien estate a copy for review. So they had time to hand it off to the showrunners to use as inspiration before they aired a single episode in 2020.

Because law. Legally speaking, any wholly new elements of creative work would be under copyright, but when it comes to fan fiction, it would be incredibly messy.

No, but his book is self-published...so, this could most likely bite him in the ass, if the Tolkien estate chose to counter-sue him for doing so.

When Bo-Katan and Din bring “her” faction of the Mandalorians to meet the Armorer/Death Watch faction, after the initial hostile reception, the next scene is one of a large meal being shared.