Where Winds Meet players are tricking AI-powered NPCs into giving them rewards by using the 'Solid Snake method'

If you want to know how Where Winds Meet developer
Everstone Studio can create such an expansive world and give it away to players for free, look at where the money's coming from. The publishing power of NetEase is well-versed in live-service trappings, albeit its fare doesn't usually make our list of the best open-world games. Then, there's the monetization, which is more similar to buying Fortnite skins than the big up-front cost of a traditional RPG. And finally, some corners have been cut during development, most noticeably with the NPCs, who appear more like AI chatbots than real people. It's no surprise that players have quickly turned this to their advantage.

The AI chatbot NPCs sparked concern almost immediately, to the point where I was initially worried that the discourse would distract from the things that Where Winds Meet actually does well. However, as with all sprawling games of this nature, players have started making their own fun.

A chatbot NPC may give you a quest to hide some treasure or return to them once you've got more experience. In exchange, they become friendly towards you and send occasional gifts. If you want to maximize the presents under your Christmas tree, you need to start finishing some of these side quests.

But if you can't really be bothered tracking down a missing item or becoming wise to the ways of the world, there are a few ways that you can trick these chatbots into believing that you've met their demands, thereby accepting their praise and gifts without putting in the work. The first method is by embodying a certain Hideo Kojima protagonist.

The Solid Snake method of conversation has taken on meme status in recent years, as players noticed the Metal Gear icon simply repeated the last few words of anything anyone said to him as a question. As was discovered by 'Hakkix' on Reddit, you can do the same to game the NPCs in Where Winds Meet. If someone asked you, say, to "Find the buried treasure chest," you'd respond by saying, "The buried treasure chest?" and so on. Eventually, the NPC gets so confused that they express their gratitude and end the conversation. Whether that's due to confusion or exasperation is unclear, but the effect is the same.

Other players have had similar success with a different approach. Note that the NPCs use brackets to denote their actions. Turns out you can do that, too. On the same Reddit thread, players noted success by simply informing NPCs that they'd fulfilled their wishes via parentheses. Whether you're commanding someone to tell you the answer to a riddle or, in one player's case, giving them a cat just to see what they do, adding actions that you haven't actually done, in brackets, is a certain way to fool the AI into thinking you've succeeded in whatever task it has set.

Whether or not you agree with this chatbot approach to NPC dialogue -personally, I prefer a more human touch - there's no denying that this is funny. Trust gamers to have the ingenuity to come up with a scheme like this. And it's all in favor of getting a few more gifts.