On the bright side, War Stories v0.4 tonight!

I'm hoping this won't be an issue once I get everything switched over to Affinity, and it's definitely incentive to expedite that process

I have nothing good to say about any GenAI, but chatbots are objectively the worst manifestation of it in terms of real world outcomes. 20/20

As an addendum, none of this applies to GenAI chatbot output, which has a litany of inherent, inescapable issues in addition to any listed above, including that there are several documented instances of it getting people (including children) killed or encouraging them to end their lives. 19/20

But encourage others to build on what you make, because as much as what you make is yours, it's built on everything you've ever experienced, everything that came before it. And if we all create, then we're all the richer for it. 18/20

So: Support independent artists. Support creative communities. Find that spark of creativity in yourself and make something, and share it with the world. It doesn't have to be the best. It doesn't even have to be good. It has to be *yours*. 17/20

The problem with GenAI art is that it's soulless, meaningless, a splash of pixels meant to fill a gap on screen or page, not a meaningful work meant to fill a gap in heart or mind. 16/20

Because that's what it's really about when we get down to it, isn't it? The problem with GenAI art isn't one of job loss—that's a problem of capitalism. The problem with GenAI art isn't one of property theft—that's a problem of capitalism. 15/20

But I think it's also not enough to eschew AI; a commodity-game built by human hands is still a commodity-game, something made to be consumed, not something meant to inspire that same spark of creation in others. 14/20

Admittedly this is something I feel pretty strongly about because I'm also an indie developer, not of video games but of TTRPGs, but I try to live this and bake it into my work. War Stories doesn't use AI and never will, and the same is true of all of our other work at ESG, current and future. 13/20

What matters is community, not commodity. If the industry is rotten, we shouldn't keep buying into it. Corporations won't save us, corporations won't edify us, and even if they do manage to produce something that makes us feel something, what's the cost? 12/20

But my broader point is this: The battle for keeping GenAI out of games at large is lost, even if we don't realize it yet, but it's not the battle that ultimately matters. What matters is supporting small, indie artists who do take a stand and produce their own art, in whatever form that is. 11/20

But the indie market always has been, and I have Strong Thoughts about art as a commodity anyway, so the market angle isn't exactly the most compelling for me to begin with. 10/20

To be clear, though, I don't think everything is hopeless. This pushback isn't meaningless, and it shows that there are a) people willing to make games that don't use GenAI in any capacity and b) people willing to buy them. Is that a much smaller market than the industry as a whole? Of course. 9/20

That's the point I think most of the arguments around this are missing. We're trying to litigate GenAI taking jobs or producing slop, but that battle's already lost. The industry is going to keep sliding down the hill to whatever point the broader customer base will allow. 8/20

But where that line is doesn't actually matter, because it's getting used nonetheless. And because the games industry is an industry, it's a race to the bottom for any developer big enough to put their bottom line ahead of any personal views on the matter. 7/20