(Video not by me)
PC Gamer and GamingOnLinux recently covered a few things about GOG’s usage of genAI for promotional content, but this video goes into deeper coverage about their Head of Product being responsible for their direction. (Cue scam AI Instagram girls). It also covers how the company chose to respond to the backlash regarding their usage of genAI.
It’s sad to see them being brazen about their AI usage. I advocated for them several times, owning games (anything, really) is something that should be for granted. All of this makes their store look really cheap and turns off people from thinking about the idea.
Steam do nothing: wins
Steam’s business model of “do nothing and watch every single competitor repeatedly shoot their own feet” seems to work really well.
deleted by creator
“Okay guys we’ve purchased GOG, the internet’s darling for DRM-free gaming. If we play our cards right we could take an even larger share of steams sales. Our first order of business: pivot our focus onto the one thing that DRM-conscious gamers would hate more than DRM!”
Reminder to actually download and archive all the game files you bought on gog. They might not be there for much longer.
Any projects to auto archive everything?
I hear of lgogdownloader. There’s plenty of projects like this. I second the notion to download all your stuff, or as much as you can now.
I can vouch for lgogdownloader.
It‘s sad to see they use the very tool that has become a true menace for anyone who wants to play games right now. There are so many aspects to it that put the entire concept of ownership at risk and they just use it nilly willy. I‘m not even surprised anymore but still so very disappointed.
I don’t care much at all that they used an AI generated banner ad for a store sale, but plenty of people do, and it was predictable that they would. If they wanted to save money, it would have only cost them a single game’s revenue to find someone on Fiverr to make a similar graphic.
As somebody who has used Fiverr, there’s a lot of good artists on there, but it does not cost five dollars.
Not anymore, but I doubt a graphic like the one they used would have cost a pretty penny.
But people on Fiverr are probably now using AI too. So you might end up paying someone to use AI instead of just using AI yourself.
I agree but if it was just used in minor or very minor places.
But the job requirements require you to use AI tools which is not fine with me(it would be fine if it was optional)If it results in less or worse work getting done, we’ll either see it manifest as the customers and it will affect my future purchasing decisions with no harm to what I’ve already bought, or they’ll stop drinking the kool aid. I worked on a game project with a die-hard NFT believer, and even he eventually backed down on trying to shoehorn them into the game after it was clear they were more controversial and less productive than monetizing the game with more ordinary methods.
It’s sad to see so I’m going to keep a close eye on what GOG do from here.
Damn, I won’t be buying games on GOG at all until they fully course correct into a better state of being. I will be downloading all of my installers that I care about, because if things are this desperate, they might not have long.
tl;dw?
GOG caught using AI tools, head of product tweeting AI Instagram scams
I know people hate AI (I am included in that group), however trying to get companies to stop using AI is a waste of energy. I believe that technology is going to keep progressing, potentially at the cost of the human race, unless something fundamentally changes in our system. We’ve already gotten rid of multiple jobs and destroyed the environment due to technology, so I don’t see how AI is any different. Although I suppose AI actually has the power to straight up replace human beings if it ever becomes that intelligent.
Edit: AI is a new technology, but so was the car, computer, and smartphone. All of these things have changed the world for better or worse (I’d argue worse, I think anyone that looks at the dire state of our planet would agree). I merely make the claim that AI is the next thing of that. Hate it or like it, it is probably here to stay unless the system as a whole changes, which is where our energy should be focused.
Ironic to argue that trying to stop AI is a waste of energy given how much energy is wasted to use AI. Could have used better phrasing in your quest to get people to stop being negative towards AI.
AI is a very good summarizer, and I use it to reformat and modernise tons of legal texts into markdown and an easier-to-read format for my own reference at work, which I would not dare ask another human being to brave such mundane work. I really don’t see the appeal of AI in art other than place holder.
