a list of games, developers and studios to boycott.

[rycochet@furs.social]

@zzt @davidgerard You just know each and every 'developer' has involvement in one or more abandoned Unity asset flip or blockchain game, and has a Bluesky where they're continually talking about how anti-AI folks are persecuting them because they don't want Steam's marketplace to become even more like the sketchy clone filled Google play store or Amazon books.

[abrasive@digipres.club]

@davidgerard I like how the quality bar for the festival's own materials is subterranean. this was the very first content heading when I loaded the page

[wilson6923@veganism.social]

@zzt @davidgerard changing hearts and minds one doubter at a time… I hope it crashes and burns.

[rubydragon@chaos.social]

@abrasive @davidgerard I mean, already the embed says

> Learn how AI being used to games faster than ever [...]

??

[rycochet@furs.social]

@navi @davidgerard The same reason one of the games rips off the RunDMC logo, when your mindset is 'I like money and hate effort!' and your 'creative partner' relies entirely on vomiting a homogenate of things that already exist, you're not getting anything new.

[templailloahi@mastodon.social]

@davidgerard "Learn how AI being used to games faster than ever" I think they accidentally the whole truck

[dcoderlt@ohai.social]

@davidgerard
There’s also this curator who tracks games with AI disclosures: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45873208-Slop-Alert/

[lariscusobscurus@wien.rocks]

@davidgerard "Bad Rats" in the Marketing and campaign support section made me lol.

[mtconleyuk@mastodonapp.uk]

@rubydragon @abrasive @davidgerard
Also, they consistently use the word ‘or’ when they should be using ‘and’.

[jplebreton@mastodon.social]

@davidgerard the word "festival" makes it appear much more like a valve-sanctioned event, like the themed sales weeks they commonly run on the platform. i wonder if this will lead to any steam policy changes.
steam's user culture hates AI and can be super toxic in that classic gamergatey way, and for once (compared to all the times they're freaking out about eg a woman or LGBTQ character or dev) they might act in alignment with the rest of us.

[kaito02@mastodon.social]

@pndc @davidgerard why would you play slop games

[frothyphobe@mastodon.social]

@dcoderlt @davidgerard Very useful, thank you!

[cal@kind.social]

@dcoderlt @davidgerard And one for AI store content: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45751774-Slop-Descriptions

[lariscusobscurus@wien.rocks]

@davidgerard SteamDB has a full list of games taking part in this "Festival"

https://steamdb.info/sales/event/669500857710019396/

[rune@social.sound-city.dk]

@davidgerard thanks, I hate it

[floppy@mastodon.me.uk]

@davidgerard the apostrophe here leaves me wholly unsurprised.

[natanox@chaos.social]

@pndc @kaito02 @davidgerard Fair enough, though the question is still why anyone would litter their expensive hard drives with this garbage instead of high quality games - preferably those you own (fuck "licenses", you OWN what you bought).

I'd rather have a copy of every single git commit version of Beyond All Reason on disk (like, physically, no version management inbetween) than a single of those Slop "games".

[spawnie@mastodon.social]

@LariscusObscurus @davidgerard
Some real gems in there
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4596000/CODEX_vs_SCIENCE_Not_Talos_Principles/
" CODEX vs SCIENCE (Not Talos Principles) is a [...] game designed to address the deep-rooted cultural drivers behind severe human conflicts: the friction between dogmatic religious extremism and anti-dogmatic scientific skepticism. Set against the backdrop of current geopolitical crises, such as the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, the game serves as a cultural intervention. "

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

[grim_elsewhere@lgbtqia.space]

@davidgerard 13 members. Whoo. Gangbusters.

[curtadams@urbanists.social]

@davidgerard "Learn how AI being used to games faster than ever" - they can't even get the grammar right. Isn't that supposed to be something GenAI is actually pretty good at?