As Gamers, we are all aware of how much “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) has affected our hobby over the last few years. Also, I’m sure we are mostly aware that these AI aren’t really AI in a classic sense, as they are only Large Language Models (LLMs), that basically take prompts you enter into them and use information they have scraped off of the Internet to spit out something approximating what you asked it to create.
So, not anything even close to actual intelligence. Just a plagiarism search engine.
Anyway, I digress. AI is being used extensively by companies in the gaming industry, be it video or tabletop games, albeit more with video games it would appear. Major hit games from “Expedition 33” to “Dungeons & Dragons” have had their own AI controversies, but the companies behind them seem to simply brush away any criticism of their AI use and continue onward.
My question to you here is this: If you find out a game company or creator, be they a video or tabletop game, used AI to create that game, would you buy it (or continue to play it, if already purchased)?
Personally, as a general rule, I would not. Take “Baldur’s Gate III”, for example. Turns out that Larian Studios used AI in the creation of that game, and intend to use AI in future titles, as well. While I have already bought and played BG3, and I own “Divinity: Original Sin 2” as well, I don’t plan to buy or play any other games made by Larian Studios. Because frankly, I don’t support their use of a technology that outright steals the work of actual living, breathing artists.
The same goes for anything made by Wizards of the Coast. Which frankly sucks, because I have a large D&D library, and while I don’t care for D&D 5.5, I do enjoy some of the earlier editions, and would have no problem buying reprints of books from those sets off of DriveThru RPG, I simply won’t do it now.
WotC is embracing AI, so they will never see another dime from me. Period.
Now the problem is, especially when it comes to AI “art”, the LLMs are getting better and better at approximating real, Human-made art. They still can’t do writing all that well, but art and video is getting more and more ‘realistic’, and thus harder to distinguish from Human-made art.
So what do we do, once we can’t tell AI “art” from that made by real artists? How will we stand up for human artists and boycott gaming companies resorting to AI “art” in their products, if we simply can’t tell the difference?
Here is where the AI Advocates step in, of course. They will say that AI is fine to use in games now, because someday it will be indistinguishable from Human art, and that means we should just accept it and move on.
No. I, for one, will not do that.
The only reason that LLMs are getting better and better at approximating Human-made art is that their makers keep stealing Human art to train said LLMs, allowing them to refine their output so that someday we won’t know a Picasso from some AI Slop. And frankly, that’s a crime against Humanity.
Once AI’s replace all of the artists and writers, what do they do? Making a living as an artist is already damn near impossible, suddenly they will have no way to survive and will have to set aside their art and try to make a living some other way. Then, little by little, Human-made art dies.
Oh, wait… That’s already happening.
Video game companies laying off artists and using AI to replace them. TTRPG companies, and in many cases even just individual creators, using LLMs to “write” their TTRPGs (in whole or in part) for them, then flooding the marketplace with this slop. From Steam to DriveThruRPG you can see it, the cascade of AI slop games taking over, as the Human-made games are harder and harder to find amidst the sea of slop. And even when there aren’t tons of small AI projects to wade through, even the major game releases using AI are more and more prevalent.
The situation is insufferable, to be frank. It has to end.
But maybe that’s just me? Are you fine with some or all of your favorite games being made with AI, in whole or just in part? Are you willing to overlook the use of AI because “It’s a good game” or “It really isn’t hurting anyone”? Because if that is the case, well, that’s your choice I guess.
I will respectfully disagree.
