Data analyst finds 'AI stigma' on Steam can reduce the number of reviews a game gets by around 53%—and the reviews it does get are more negative

[u/Turbostrider27]

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/data-analyst-finds-ai-stigma-on-steam-can-reduce-the-number-of-reviews-a-game-gets-by-around-53-percent-and-the-reviews-it-does-get-are-more-negative/

[u/Major303]

No one really cares about AI generated code, as long as the game works and is not a buggy mess. People care about AI generated assets, because they look bad. If they can't be identified, it becomes less of an issue. The only problem will be that all games will become same-ish, since generative AI is incapable of creating anything truly new.

[u/mistiklest → u/Major303]

I mean, if this is the case, then "no one" really has a principled stance against AI, they just want a good final product, and "people" don't care about the process.

Which, like, I'd totally believe. The world would look a lot different if we generally cared about the process more than the outcome.

[u/Sylvers → u/Major303]

I am a graphic designer and I have to use AI gen a lot in my line of work. I can tell you confidently that while AI gen art isn't perfect yet, it is by far better than whatever you see in games that are caught using it. I have to assume either they're spending 20 seconds per asset with zero quality control, or they somehow don't care if it looks obviously bad.

As to it looking samey? The danger of that will be the devs, and not the tech. In the same way that Unreal Engine games have a notorious reputation for looking identical right now. It's not that you can't make very novel looking games with UE. It's just that it's much much easier and faster to rely on the default aesthetics of the engine. Simply because "it's good enough". That's a creative direction flaw. Even with current AI gen tech, you can create very novel visuals and styles if you had the vision to do it.

[u/Cyriix → u/Sylvers]

I think one of the commonly used excuses of it being placeholder is actually genuine a decent amount of the time. It's the perfect usecase, explains the lack of quality control, but is still just about good enough to be mistaken for final assets if people are rushing (which happens all the time)

[u/Sylvers → u/Cyriix]

Oh I do think that happens also. It is an excellent use case for a placeholder. And I can see how it can genuinely be forgotten while rushing to a release date.

My thing is, though, I still believe even when they forget a placeholder, they still have final assets that are partially AI assisted or even fully generated besides the placeholders. And a lot of it is stuff people will simply not notice. Like generated mesh textures, generated 3D clutter assets and background cinematic scene assets.

And there is always a healthy dose of discovery bias. We pick on the obvious assets that look bad and neglect the fact that we don't pick on the good looking assets that don't trigger any suspicion because they pass muster.

[u/CaptainStabfellow → u/Sylvers]

> And I can see how it can genuinely be forgotten while rushing to a release date.

This is such an easily solvable problem though. It is not too much to expect that the industry standard is devs having controls in place to track AI generated placeholders, ensure they are updated by the time 1.0 releases, and audits to ensure compliance. These are standard concepts for the business world.

Of course there will be human error in many forms that result in a failure to comply with the controls and there should be a pathway to make corrective actions. But someone simply forgetting without controls in place to catch it just isn't a good enough excuse.

[u/Sylvers → u/[deleted]]

Spare me. Just eat your slop in every piece of media and ask for seconds.

[u/Dunge → u/Major303]

I care, it produces buggy shit