top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 28 points 3 days ago (25 children)

If you’re proud of your use of LLMs, you’d want to promote it. The only legitimate reason to conceal it is you consider it problematic.

LLMs are a competency solvent and credibility chipper. It’s bad enough if you can afford sacrificing some slack, but a lobotomy it’s catastrophic if you haven’t.

  • source
  • hideshow 25 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    The only legitimate reason to conceal it is you consider it problematic.

    I get what you mean, and agree that the AI slop is bad and should be declared... But I'd argue that "considering it problematic isn't the only reason to conceal it.

    There obvious financial motives. If you don't think it's problematic, but think it'll hurt sales then that is a "legitimate" reason. It's a morally shitty reason, but it makes sense.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (22 replies)
    [–] 17 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    even flash games from the early 00s had soul in them

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 11 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    I remember going to the Radio Shack in the early 80s and seeing dozens of different Atari carts, priced at like $4.99 (which was a lot more then, ofc, but it still felt cheap), pretty much all of which were garbage.

    It pulled down the price that good games could charge and killed the industry for a bit. I feel like peer communication is for now easier, so games like BG3 can still command a price premium given their quality, but the slop cannon is not a good thing for the industry generally or Valve in particular.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago

    It does feel like we are barrelling headfirst into another gaming industry collapse, doesn’t it?

    Between the whole soulless, overpriced, MTX-riddled “AAAA” crap crowding out the top, tonnes of AI-slip flooding the bottom-end, and the antagonism towards physical media - it seems like it’ll only be a matter of time.

    Especially given how there is a literal lifetime’s backlog of quality titles from half a dozen console generations - gamers could survive an ice-age. Developers and publishers can’t.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 9 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    I've thought for a while they should put the AI disclaimers at the top of the pages instead of at the end of the game's description and you have to click 'See More'

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 9 points 3 days ago* (1 child)

    Stringent labeling rules are a must. Not just on Steam but on everything "si" slop based.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 8 points 3 days ago

    For now, for players browsing the thousands of Next Fest demos, finding genuine, hand-crafted games has become an exhausting chore. On the other hand, indie devs are afraid of AI-generated copycat games and some go as far as pulling out of Steam Next Fest to avoid getting their game stolen.

    Any small game developer would have to be a fool to use Next Fest as is. This is awful.

  • source
  • [–] [S] 54 points 4 days ago* (7 children)

    I have yet to see the actual numbers about this, I'm pretty sure it's worse than what my gut feeling (and anecdotal observation) tells me: I download a TON of demos during Next Fest, it's my favourite events of the year, so I tend to browse through hundreds of demos sorted by charts.

    • February had around 3000 demos and 717 of those has declared using generative AI (keep in mind there's also a bunch that did NOT declare using it, a lot of Steam capsules artwork are generated by AI despite no disclaimer for example)
    • June had 4411 demos (27% more) and 553 of those (12%) has declared using generative AI (27% less) (that can mean either less demos using generative ai OR more demos hiding the fact they're using generative ai)
    • October (current edition) has 6509 registered demos, that's a huge jump (57% more)
  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    If you ask me the huge jump in committed demos is very likely due to vibe coding quickly becoming the de facto standard over the summer and turning out massive amounts of code in a few hours. I assume many "developers" have already accepted that this is how things are done for the moment and don't even declare AI use anymore. "I haven't written a single line of code last month!" is something I keep hearing lately. Even from indie devs who have already launched somewhat successful games on Steam. Some of them seem so happy about it that I wonder if they have any critical thinking skills at all because them essentially not working anymore means they're all out of the job soon.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 3 days ago

    Making a game involves a lot more work than just coding. You don't necessarily have to be out of work due to that. Some people may even be in work due to that, if they had a good strong vision for a game and it's mechanics but we're lacking coding skills. Still, it's a complicated situation so it's not black and white.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 15 points 4 days ago (3 children)
  • [–] 15 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    This kind of slop isn't exclusive to AI, it just made the cost of making one less

    Just look at the publisher Playway, they were already doing barely functional slop way before

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 3 days ago

    SteamDB has a filter for the AI Content Disclosed tag, which means we can exclude games with it. Now I know some lie, and others also use to state that they don't use AI, however it's the best we've got for now.

    https://steamdb.info/sales/event/713414759190366804/?displayOnly=Demo&tagid=-1368160

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    Slop games have always been a problem on Steam. I can't remember who it was since it was forever ago, but I used to watch a YouTuber who would "review" the shovel-ware that would show up on Steam. That being said, LLMs sure make putting out slop so much easier. The skill floor for creating garbage is even lower than it was before, which is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    Before those AI-slop games I think it was asset-flips with tons of achievements. We really need Steam to finally do something.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago*

    I don't think it's a issue of filtering out games that are bad but more of one making sure the good ones are seen.

    I don't really see the ai games as a new issue but continuation of just slop games in general.

    I'm all for a filter, it would help I just don't think its going to give the result people want. Epic/unreal is going practically full ai, and people are just going to hide the disclosure.

    Ai just makes this problem way more obvious because it increases the rate of which these games can be made. It came at a time when indie games are at their strongest and charming friedslop games and endless rougelikes are taking over. its just so many things to look through you could spend a whole day searching for a game to give 30 bucks to, and still feel unsure what to buy. And often I'll overlook good games because someone made a shitty clone of it and I assumed they're all the same. Or just the art looks generic or ai when it was actually the game I wanted.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    Are games required to disclose? There are some aggressively AI looking games with no mention in their description. I genuinely ask since a filter would do nothing if it’s not enforced.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago

    First, we are updating the Content Survey that developers fill out when submitting to Steam. The survey now includes a new AI disclosure section, where you'll need to describe how you are using AI in the development and execution of your game.

    https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4145017/view/3862463747997849618

    But Valve has never been one for actually moderating their store or forums, that would require actual investment of both money and time.
    I wonder if this will finally make them act.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›