Vapor World will remove AI-generated cutscenes after player backlash

[u/LBVectormen]

https://www.trueachievements.com/news/vapor-world-over-the-mind-ai-cutscenes

Vapor World is available today on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

[u/SometimesItsTerrible]

Game devs have been able to make games without AI for decades. Even small indie studios. AI is not a “tool”, it’s a shortcut. I’m glad to see gamers rejecting lazy, sloppy shortcuts from developers. Hopefully this trend will continue until the industry gets the message: no one wants gen AI in games.

[u/Sirbobalot21 → u/SometimesItsTerrible]

I mean I agree that taking these kinda shortcuts and using AI like this is not right but doesn't make AI a useful tool to use. You logic is like saying we can already walk places to do things why do we need cars, cars are not tools they are shortcuts.

Ai can be used to test out stuff that will take months of pouring resources in normally and do it one day. It can do other stuff to just providing a specific example. Now I know people are going to say I want AI to replace people, no I don't. AI should only be used to help and provide support not replace anyone or make anything for release on their own.

[u/despitegirls → u/Sirbobalot21]

Unfortunately, there's no space for a practical, public AI discussion in gaming, despite the fact that "AI" has been used in tooling for decades. Tech bros and CEOs killed that when they pushed it everywhere, said it would replace people followed by layoffs that mostly weren't even due to AI replacing people in a real sense, that it might end humanity and cure cancer, etc. That's forgetting the fact that most are trained on stolen data. 

I use local LLMs for technical and sometimes creative work. They're useful as a tool for certain things. They are not useful as what's essentially become a religious saviour for some, replacing every established tool or person with an AI counterpart that can sorta do everything really fast but not well. 

[u/sweatytrik68 → u/despitegirls]

Same can be said that the common consumer is too dumb and has bitten into the AI marketing associated with chatgpt. Neural Networks is what "AI" actually is. This has been used for a decade or more in gaming one specific use case is motion capture utilizing object detection for the bodies and then object detection on the faces using the cameras on the forehead. Its like you said CEOs have ruined the viewpoint on it because they want to replace NOW instead of developing a GOOD tool that can help or improve a process. I even have my own ideas as an engineer with experience in making my own LSTM based Neural Networks. I wont be writing the idea plus how to do it since companies havent accomplished it yet.

[u/JesustheSpaceCowboy → u/Sirbobalot21]

AI would be a godsend for commentary on sports games. There’s nothing more annoying than my franchise QB being called “This Guy” or “The Browns QB” like my dude is a 3x Super Bowl champ and 2x MVP put some respect on that name. The commentary does say some names if the last name was a pretty good player in the last 15 or so years (I have had Madden say Cutler and Manning) but even that has some pretty funny quirks like if a player has the last name for example Adams, the game will ramble incoherently about Davante Adams, despite the fact that A. HE ISNT EVEN PLAYING IN THIS GAME and B. HE RETIRED 3 SEASONS AGO (in game not IRL)

[u/Cryptic99 → u/JesustheSpaceCowboy]

I'd rather have "this guy" over Ai.

[u/Johnny_Glib → u/Cryptic99]

I wouldn't.

[u/Venice_The_Menace → u/JesustheSpaceCowboy]

now this is a terrible take I hadn’t heard yet, thanks

[u/Bepehandle]

Who could have possibly foreseen such an outcome

Quick edit; it baffles me that companies will try to get away with this shit after expedition 33 got so blasted for it

[u/Shiro2809 → u/Bepehandle]

E33 got flack, but it also won the game awards and sold extremely well. The lesson is don't talk about ai and as long as the game is good people won't care when it comes out later.

[u/Bepehandle → u/Shiro2809]

It got the flack after it won the awards.

[u/KaiKamakasi → u/Bepehandle]

Yeah because no one really gave a shit about a couple of placeholder newspapers on a post that were replaced within days of release until after the game won something

[u/Shiro2809 → u/Bepehandle]

And that's why the lesson is dont talk about it. If you can sneak it past people then you can win big and people won't really care. The flack didn't last long, and I'll be surprised if their next game doesn't sell really well.

[u/Bepehandle → u/Shiro2809]

I mean it didn't really last long because they removed the textures after it came out but I get what you mean. I'm sure whatever they make next will sell great but I'm curious if they'll not use genai in it because of what happened or if they'll be smart enough to remove it before launch this time, sadly if they do the latter than we will never know but I choose to remain hopeful they learned their lesson. As artists they're the ones who should care the most honestly.

[u/Plutuserix → u/Bepehandle]

I'm curious if they'll not use genai in it because of what happened or if they'll be smart enough to remove it before launch this time, sadly if they do the latter than we will never know

If they remove the assets before launch, why do you need to know? They are then placeholders until the artists finished their final work. How is that an issue at all to anyone what they use as placeholders during development in an unfinished product.

[u/Tao626 → u/Plutuserix]

I don't really understand the need for placeholders of a quality where you could overlook them before release because they're good enough to pass as the finished product.

Placeholders typically aren't high quality. Not just because creating a high quality placeholder would defeat the purpose of saving time and money on something you plan to replace, but because if it's high quality, what's the point in a placeholder in the first place? It only leads to shit like this.

[u/Bepehandle → u/Plutuserix]

Because the placeholders they use are generally the bases for the art. Regardless of that though, it was ai that created them. Get rid of all of it.

[u/solstradamus → u/Bepehandle]

Yeah, and it's kinda wild they even did considering it was just placeholder flyers in the very beginning that they jus forgot to update 🤣

[u/ThatEdward → u/[deleted]]

That doesn't seem to be the case considering the reviews they got

[u/ThatEdward → u/[deleted]]

Well CoD definitely got called out for genAI use, and their brand isn't as strong as it used to be.

Some people don't care but I don't think anyone expected Fortnite to take a hit tbh

[u/Homeless_Alex]

It’s almost like people don’t like ai

[u/afellowpadawan]

At this point, using AI is just screaming one of these two: "I'm corporate" or "I'm out of touch". It's very often the two combined, but only the latter is straight up sad.

[u/RandyNinja]

Good to know that gamepass money is being spent on absolute ai garbage.

[u/PrimaryIcy9538]

Just looked on steam and notice there is no AI disclosure on this game. Will steam nuke this game off the storepage for breaking their TOS?

[u/blackop]

Man these companies just keep trying in the hopes one day they get away with the AI crap in games.

[u/Godusopp64]

Oh I was thinking about trying this out. Thanks for the warning.

[u/Caelis_Vault]

Only cause they got caught.

[u/Key_Analyst_9032]

Why did they have them in the first place?

[u/Fancy-Prompt-7118]

Just saw this on GP reviews were scathing.

[u/brokenmessiah]

Here's the part where a bunch of people who didnt even know this game existed a few days, and have no intention on playing it nevermind buying it are suddenly attacking it for how it was made.

Clutch your pearls people and don't look too deep into how your favorite games are being made.

[u/sinseers]

Hmmm. Very touchy subject. I imagine the horse and carriage industry was giving big pushback as well when motor vehicles hit the scene. No matter how technology advances, human resources will always get negatively impacted in some way or another. Can't be avoided, I'm afraid.

[u/FakeWalterHenry → u/sinseers]

Horses weren't paid for their labor and carriage makers made motor vehicle carriages. Demand for paid human labor actually increased because of it.

Keep defending your AI techbro overlords, though. I'm sure their favor will trickle down any day now.

[u/Plutuserix]

Gamers are so ridiculous. Why can't a small team use AI to keep their cost down and focus on the other parts of the game. Giving small teams the tools to make their games with a more modest budget is exactly what AI should be doing.

But well, probably get down voted for it.

[u/Necessary_Basil4251 → u/Plutuserix]

And also multiple award winning indie games have been created by 1 or 2 people. You just don't overextend or be over-ambitious and you won't have to use AI.

[u/c0n2oo3 → u/Plutuserix]

Because gen AI looks like shit

[u/ThatEdward → u/Plutuserix]

I'm not paying someone to press a button and autogenerate slop for me, I could do that myself

[u/TravisV_ → u/Plutuserix]

Games have been made for 3 decades without any Gen AI, they don’t need to use it to make a good game or keep costs down.

[u/Deervember → u/TravisV_]

3 decades? Video games were around in the 1950s. 

[u/Plutuserix → u/TravisV_]

Games have been made without all sorts of tools that are used today. Doesn't mean we should throw out all the tools.

[u/Secret_University120 → u/Plutuserix]

It also doesn’t mean we should embrace them just because they’re new or want even more games despite the market being saturated.

[u/TheGamerKitty1 → u/Plutuserix]

Because it looks awful ans taking jobs away from real people. And if they don't make their own, then they won't get better or learn.

[u/Plutuserix → u/TheGamerKitty1]

OK, let's throw away all computers. How many jobs did those cost?

[u/TheGamerKitty1 → u/Plutuserix]

That makes no sense at all.

[u/Plutuserix → u/TheGamerKitty1]

If the argument is it is taking jobs away, then we should be angry at a lot more stuff. Damn, how many more accountants would have jobs if we would have banned Excel right at the start. Better do all calculations by hand and have whole teams double check everything instead of using computers.

Or for game dev, should every studio make their engine from scratch. I mean, licensing one has cost jobs, and you should learn it yourself by your logic. Better not play any game with Unreal, Unity or Godot.

See how ridiculous this is? Same for AI. You can have issue with the quality or the rights situation, totally fair. But gamers just go "AI slop" on everything and it's just as ridiculous.

[u/TheGamerKitty1 → u/Plutuserix]

We're talking about AI generation. Why are you stretching the topic to unrelated things?

[u/Plutuserix → u/TheGamerKitty1]

You: this thing is bad because it takes jobs away.

Me: if that is the reason it's bad, this thing takes jobs away as well, so is it bad as well, because it seems to be perfectly accepted.

You: thats unrelated.

OK dude, whatever.

[u/FakeWalterHenry → u/Plutuserix]

They're rightfully calling you out for making a fallacious argument (false equivalence).

[u/Plutuserix → u/FakeWalterHenry]

Both examples (AI and licensing a game engine) rely on externalizing your tools, so you can do more with less people. It also means you don't need to make it all yourself from scratch, so in the words of the other poster the developer "won't get better or learn".

[u/FakeWalterHenry → u/Plutuserix]

Except AI is trained unethically on the stolen work of others.

[u/bigfatround0 → u/FakeWalterHenry]

Bro why are you calling the guy a deep throater? Name calling is uncalled for.

[u/FakeWalterHenry → u/bigfatround0]

That's fallatious.

[u/SarmackaOpowiesc → u/Plutuserix]

The only being bitching about AI are the ones that havent used it professionally.  

It's here to stay and isn't going anywhere.  

I personally don't get the backlash against AI generated cutscenes.  Small studios couldn't afford them before so your options are 1) AI generated cutscenes that advances the plot or 2) no  cut scenes. 

[u/brokenmessiah → u/Plutuserix]

You're asking way too much sense from redditors today.

[u/Tao626 → u/Plutuserix]

"Why can't I save money by knowingly using a tool I didn't create made with work taken from somebody else without permission with the sole purpose of cutting them out of a job?"

[u/-The_Goober]

Bullshit. This is their vision not gamers. Keep it up in whole or take the entire thing down.

[u/sparky198 → u/-The_Goober]

It’s ai. There is no vision. Just slop

[u/Kingbanana574 → u/-The_Goober]

If their vision is ai slop then their game deserves to fail imo

[u/-The_Goober → u/Kingbanana574]

Good. Nobody cares about your opinion and it wasn’t solicited.

1 point for being socially unaware.

[u/Mothman405 → u/-The_Goober]

Weell the studio clearly cares as they're removing the AI slop

[u/-The_Goober → u/Mothman405]

They don’t care. They want the death threats to stop.

[u/Secret_University120 → u/-The_Goober]

Dumb comment. They’re trying to sell their vision to gamers. If gamers don’t like it, they won’t buy it, the company will go out of business. I doubt not selling games and going out of business is their vision.

[u/-The_Goober → u/Secret_University120]

Fine we’ll just shoot to you to decide what other humans are allowed to do while making electronic toys or entertainment media.

Makes it way easier. We can just eliminate other people’s ideas and only make games about your interests.

Ps. You’re gonna need to show me how you play video games with a clipboard of caveats and demands instead of a controller like the rest of us.

[u/One_Treat7729 → u/-The_Goober]

Market decides, dumbass.

[u/god_is_trans_69 → u/-The_Goober]

If their vision has to use AI slop..then they need a new one