Is BitCraft OK with the seriously unprofessional look of promoting Generative AI usage?

[warped scroll]

Is BitCraft OK with the seriously unprofessional look of promoting excessive environmental damage and highly unethical practices by normalizing the use of Generative AI in their current Banner Event?

I love this game, and I am very excited for the upcoming release on Steam, so I'm going to craft this question as caringly as possible.

The carefully worded statement in the Discord Banner Event Announcement as to this not being an art competition I think says a lot. Someone spent a lot of time trying to find a middle ground for a very controversial decision. Which probably seems like a good idea in a lot of cases.

Unfortunately there really is no middle ground to be had here.

Least of all because Graphic Design itself is very much an art. Most of all because Game Development is absolutely an art.

Please run this entire event past all the very hard working people on this beautiful project and make sure that this really is the stance you want to be taking right now.

I understand that maybe this is "just the Discord Server", and "it's just for a cute little banner event" but I beg of you to take the time to look into why this is an absolutely terrible look, and will fracture a great deal of trust with your players.

🙏 ❤️

Edit: It has also come to my attention that Steam may take the usage of Generative AI art in a banner very seriously and may require you to disclose AI usage on the store page. But I really don't fully understand all the kinds of legal copyright murkiness that starts to get into.

[rancid idol]

or just say... "Do not submit images generated by an AI." that's my wish.

If my submission loses, I want it to be because I suck at art, not because someone typed a "better prompt"

[nimble mantle]

Seriously. I was excited when I saw there was a contest because it could be fun to pull something together for it (any prizes aside) but there's no way I'm entering when GenAI is allowed. It's such an insult to the artists who love this game.

[silent haven]

There has been some confusion/miscommunication about the event rules. We will be making additional clarification about the rules over the next few days. Sorry about that. 🙏

[nimble mantle]

Just want to revisit this given the stance in the event update. It's such a bad look for BitCraft to consider a banner design on a different level from fanart, both are forms of art and expression. Banners are also a big part of what people associate with a server when the server has them, and I would think BitCraft wouldn't want to be associated with GenAI given how bad the crypto association is already.

If you're going to treat creators in your community like this I will not be entering the contest and will be reconsidering my support for the game as a whole.

GenAI is not an inclusive way to allow people to "enter a contest". It is built on stolen data and uses a ridiculous amount of electricity. It is a way to tell artists and creatives in your community that you don't care about them.

[warped scroll]

I am so sorry, but the new statement on the event doesn't make any sense. 😭

You know how a square is a just a really specific type of rectangle— creating a banner is graphic design fanart.

All the reasons why you would ban Generative AI for fanart contests, apply to banner design contests. I swear. 🙏

You are not excluding people by banning the usage of AI art.
You are excluding the creators in your community by allowing it.

[daring kraken]

this whole game all stemmed from the web3 space I'm honestly not surprised by this take from the developers.

[lyric frost]

Eh, I did consider entering the event because I could use AI since my art skills are... not up to the task. I wasn't going to be excited/expecting to win (because, well, AI art), but had hoped to add something to the hype.

Unfortunately, with what people are saying, I've lost interest. So, there is at least one person who has been pseudo excluded by the talk of banning AI art.

That being said, I can see why including AI can take the wind out of artist's sails leading to the same/similar feelings I had about participating. For what it is worth, I hope the community creators are able to submit their creations, since a lot of my hype for this game is community driven projects. Without people wanting to share, one of the big pillars for the game (social) collapses. Even if it is art that is geared towards protesting AI art, if it has a BitCraft spin to it, the social factor can progress.

[dry plaza]

Honestly this decision is fine. Since the community can just vote for the Non-AI submissions. Hopefully most of us would do that... Seems that they wouldn't allow it though if it was a fan art contest. And to be honest i think the banner will change often. There's gonna be a lot of events after this so don't get discouraged guys. If the outcome of this one is bad, they will learn and won't do it again next time

[stone hound]

Yeah, allowing AI gen in this contest sets a bad precedent

[tepid totem]

Them saying "we had a lively discussion" like did you? Because the follow up basically said the same thing just "justifying" it by splitting hairs. Graphic design, which is what this event is about, is art. By saying "oh it's not a fanart contest so ai is fine" is using semantics, that aren't even correct, to justify it. You're asking for a fan made graphic design, which is in short a fan design or fanart. It's a bad precedent to set.

[white shard]

I do absolutely agree with the posters above.
Usage of Gen.AI tools is a bad look for a company that still has not completely outlived the blockchain rumours

[mighty anchor]

generative ai bad, the art team being mad about it is the correct response