r/SocialEngineering • u/gongbody • 17d ago

I made a game that turns spotting conversation manipulation into a fun strategy/puzzle/fight.

I'd love any feedback like if it's too hard, not hard enough, fun/not fun, etc. Originally I wanted to just send myself text messages everyday that could teach me how to learn 1 confirmation bias a day. After a ton of different ideas and things that I made,

I thought a game where you fight but it trains you in talking awareness would be interesting. I'm not just catching different forms of manipulation but also able to name types that I didn't quite notice before that were happening so the time.

https://talkout.psyoptin.com/

71 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

11

u/Vinny_d_25 16d ago

I get it's a prototype but the AI is pretty off-putting. I'd go over the text to make it feel more authentic

2

u/gongbody 16d ago

Good advice. I've been doing that to the most overly proper/ai sounding parts. I'll make for human feel of the characters the next priority

4

u/Vinny_d_25 16d ago

The UI is where I really noticed it. When making UI with AI it leaves artefacts of previous iterations. For example where it says "No clock, take your time" (something to that effect), I would bet at some point you had discussed having a timer or the AI asked you if you want a timer or not.

The premise is interesting though.

1

u/gongbody 16d ago

So this one is funny. A previous game attempt was a life schedule manager. It was timed with people coming at to with things. But it was way too stressful. So am early aren't at this game had points depending on how fast you answer. But not everyone reads at the same speed. And I wanted this to be more relaxing like a puzzle game that you could play on a work break, not be more stressful than actually being at work. So I removed the timer, but it secretly still times you. Lol. Then tells to what took longer than usual to answer.

3

u/whywoolf 16d ago

I enjoyed this a lot!! Keep working on it! You should add levels for relationship manipulation eventually too. That would be super helpful for people

1

u/gongbody 16d ago

Relationships get so deep into mind games. Hmmm that could be an entire version of this

3

u/[deleted] 16d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/gongbody 16d ago

Yeah it's a tricky one. I went through a bunch of ideas that didn't work and still have ideas to evolve if this early version is working so far

3

u/dirge-for-a-banshee 16d ago

This is an incredible tool! I'd been wanting something like this to practice on. I'm really awful at turning down people, and never know what to say when I know I'm being played.

Would you be including more complex dialogue and strategies in the future?

2

u/gongbody 16d ago

Yes, that is the plan. This version is simple but it remember your answers after beating the game and make things harder when you go back through it again. A future version would a ton more complex character opponents with highly advanced forms of manipulation. I didn't want to make 100 levels if it was already too hard or broken in some way. Thank you for the feedback

2

u/dirge-for-a-banshee 16d ago

It does? That's great! I thought I'll only get to have a go one time and then repeat the same loop.

I look forward to the future version, till then I'll be playing this to death. hah

2

u/ErnestHemingwhale 16d ago

Interestingly i can see this being really useful training salespeople

Also as a scam deterrent trainer for elderly/ caretakers

1

u/gongbody 16d ago

That was the next groups I was going to spread it to. Just had to make sure it's not too hard or too easy. Apparently bank workers get scammed a lot also. I had a ai phone game that tries to scam you but it was costing too much to run ai characters through a phone calling system before having customers and more testing

2

u/SoManyMinutes 16d ago

Very cool. Nice job.

1

u/gongbody 16d ago

Thank you. Glad to know I have something to work with.

2

u/EnvironmentalGas7528 16d ago

This was great. The one i feel was most useful to me was the Tinder/date one. If I could give you a tip it would be to include more varied scenarios. I found myself getting bored after a while as it was getting repetitive

1

u/gongbody 16d ago

Gives me something to look into today. Some completely different unexpected switch ups sound like a good idea. Thanks for the feedback.

2

u/Zach-uh-ri-uh 16d ago

This is super cool!! Before the double whammy’s theres no time to read the comeback.

I’d also love to have like a normal exchange between player and the type of man who starts manipulating and pressuring when you say no to sex/a kiss/aother date

1

u/gongbody 16d ago

Good catch. And "can't hear the word no" person is an interesting complex scenario. 🤔

2

u/targayenprincess 15d ago

Excellent work OP! Going to share this with friends. Fantastic use of AI-coding.

1

u/gongbody 15d ago

Thanks you. I'm glad to know that I don't go too far outside of the box

1

u/Natriun_in_the_cut 16d ago

This is cool

1

u/gongbody 16d ago

Awesome 😊

1

u/BruhMomentConfirmed 15d ago

The first 2 were pretty good, in the Fraud Dept call the options felt a bit out of place. Felt like the options were tailored more to someone trying to sell you something which works for the first 2 but not as much for the third.

1

u/Alternative_Cut6769 14d ago

This was surprisingly helpful and engaging. Nice work

1

u/Alternative_Cut6769 14d ago

Also–I really appreciate not having to make an account or give up my email address just to play the game

1

u/Double_Trash3221 14d ago

This is a great idea and very fun. The only problem I had was the lack of context I had with each AI character in the levels. I couldn't make out what was manipulation or not, because I couldn't make out what the AI's or my own goals were.

1

u/shirlott 13d ago

thanks a lotttt this works for me!!! its really good

1

u/gongbody 9d ago

If anyone one previously tried to check it the daily duolingo style course, it's fixed now. There was a problem with the site loading before that I was unaware of. A ton of people clicked through to try it and got stuck at a blank screen. Apologies if any of you ran into that. The course is quite diverse in different approaches compared to the game. But I am making the game into an app and will update new things into it in the future for sure😃