cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/49263187
Tim Sweeney claims it’s a “Scarlet Letter” which makes players “try to kill the game”
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has criticised rival Valve for forcing studios to disclose when they use AI in game development.
Epic recently showed how it was integrating AI into Unreal Engine 6.
Time Sweeney said:
“If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you’ve got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game.
“I think it’s really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn’t do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success. You have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does.”
Which is totally ignoring the factor that the user should know about the purchase it makes and be able to decide for themselves. Transparency for the player is not a bad thing.
Hilariously, the example cited in the article doesn’t seem to actually count towards steams ai policy. Sweeney, you’re just so very full of shit.
Indie games like Stardew Valley and Undertale don’t need generative AI, skill issue much?
What next, it’s “irresponsible” to mention the system requirements because people won’t buy games that are too advanced for their device, which is depriving devs of sales?
Maybe being anti-consumer isn’t the best strategy to bring those “consumer” things to your marketplace, Tim.
Stardew Valley and Undertale
Games developed before generative AI was widely available and usable for software development.
TBF I believe indie games will benefit the most from generative AI. Letting a model have to worry about quaternions definitely makes things easier.
TBF I believe indie games will benefit the most from generative AI.
This is the one point where my opinions on GenAI split:
On one hand, art assets can be a lot of effort and time to create manually, which may hamstring games with interesting concepts and mechanics whose devs don’t have the skills or time to wrap them into suitable aesthetics. Voice acting is also a difficult point that can fill a world with life (like background chatter in villages), but isn’t always trivial for smaller teams or solo developers, particularly if they aren’t good at voice acting themselves and don’t have the money to pay someone up-front.
For those reasons, I think using GenAI to handle creative aspects is understandable if the devs themselves can’t shoulder that burden.
On the other hand, I feel like there should be better solutions. This reasoning to justify GenAI might be leveraged to justify not hiring artists or VAs. Sure makes your studio look smaller, and also leaves a larger margin of profit. Who’s gonna be able to tell whether you even looked for people to help you instead of just taking the shortcut?
I assume it comes down to economic and competitive pressures too. I’m sure there are plenty of artists or VAs that would lend their time and craft to an interesting game for the promise of a cut once the game releases, if they didn’t have to worry about paying bills right now instead of an uncertain future income.
I find myself returning to the topic of Universal Basic Income, or at least shorter working times for equal income: Imagine how much art people could create if they had the leisure to, instead of maximising profits for some money addicts’ “number go up” fix.
Super strong “If I told you who I really was you’d never have slept with me!” energy.
It’s called consent. If people wouldn’t want to engage with the content unless they were misled in some way then that amounts to manipulation and a violation of trust. Looks like Epic Games just told the whole world that they would lie to their customers if they felt like the truth would give them too much choice.
Fuck ‘em.
Tim Sweeney with a garbage take, seems like a normal day.
What really is irresponsible is using amalgamations of stolen work and presenting it as the future
Sugar labels on food didn’t stop their sales 🤷
I don’t see it. Disclosure is always a good thing.
Some people care, and they should have the option to choose. Not be misled, ignored, or lied to.
Fuck you Tim Sweeney. Valve is right for putting that info up so people can make informed purchases.
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Disney uses the hell out of Unreal Engine tho, they used it extensively for the filming of The Mandalorian.
I wish they’d go bankrupt but they will be fine off of Unreal royalties alone.
I mean, they’ve been around for 35 years and they do something like 5 billion USD a year in revenue. I think they’re going to be fine.
I don’t necessarily want this iteration of Epic to be fine, but I’m sure they will be
If the game isn’t made by people, I wish it a very merry get fucked and die.
Transparency so customers can make informed decisions is “irresponsible”? What a garbage take.
If using AI is a “scarlet letter” that makes people hate your game then don’t use it?! The willful ignorance to customer preference is staggering.
The same people unironically: let the free market decide
let the free market decide
But only if the ‘free’ market chooses me, otherwise, it’s wrong and everything should be changed!
Let the
freecaptured market decide.
“No, not like that!”
free market is when I get money
I want to hug and kiss your comment.
“Oh no, informing people allows them to decide for themselves, we can’t have that! I, sweeney whiney, must protect the world from informed decisions!”
- Tim Sweeney, wearing is burger king cardboard crown screaming in front of his mirror alone.
So they can’t not use AI because they’ll lose out to studios that do (not sure about that one but whatever) but if they do use AI no one will buy the game.
Pick one
It’s kind of the MAGA mentality.
Okay but we gotta use it. If we don’t use it we’re not cool.
And this, Tim, is why I spend most of my money at Steam.
This may shock you, but proudly parading that you want to fuck over consumers at every opportunity is not good incentive.
The more I read about Epic Games and their CEO Tim Sweeney, the more I dislike the company and the guy.
They give you lot of reasons to. For me it was a personal thing when I really started to hate Epic Games. 2019 Epic purchased the studio of Rocket League, when the game was in a hype phase and I played and enjoyed it very much on my Linux system. Shortly after they removed the Linux support for the game and then they also removed it from Steam as well. Due to an update of the game it was no longer viable to support it on Linux they said.
This really really bugged me on a personal level. Today I think the game is playable on Linux, I don’t know exactly. But it requires Epic Games Launcher and probably account on them. To me the game is dead. And Epic killed it (for me).
Yes! This is exactly why I too hate epic. They could throw a free game at me, I’d still buy it on steam. I have no intention of going where I’m not wanted.
And I was just getting good at rocket league
I’d still buy it on steam
You and a fair few others, it would seem.
I still only play it through steam?
No offense, but did you not read what I wrote?Edit: Sorry, that was rude by me. They had removed the game in the past from Steam and the Linux support. I think years later they added Linux support again, but I already moved on. While we seem to be able to play through Steam, the Epic Games Launcher still runs in the background and an Epic account is needed too (I think, is that true?). And no one can purchase it on Steam anymore.All I know is, I bought it on release day on Steam, have played it throughout the whole epic thing and still do, through Steam. I don’t have epic installed on my pc. I don’t know about linux support, I don’t use it. It is however true that you can’t get it on steam anymore, but it is free on Epic. I might have linked my steam profile to epic in order to play, not sure though, it’s been a while.
When I say you need Epic Games launcher, then I don’t mean you have to install it yourself. Usually these launchers (like Ubisoft or Rockstar) are installing it in the background and require additional resources. As said I’m not sure if this is true for the Steam version here too. If you don’t play on Linux, then you didn’t have the Linux issues then I guess. That was my main complaint, as the they took away the native Linux version and made it for months or longer unplayable for me. And that was a time when I had a lot of fun before Epic ruined it for me. If it worked for you the whole time, then good for you.
Sweeney doesn’t like games, he’s just into programming and game engines. That might help the disconnect between him and gamers.
He’s got it all wrong. We don’t want to kill the game, in my case, I just want to kill HIM.
Tim Swine-ny can you just stfu for once?
