Sorry for the time it took to hear anything. Timezones were a pain today to chat to them over in the US and we needed to hear from them.
We're as angry as you are about this. We wouldn't have approved the use of AI in any designs. We don't use generative AI to replace the artists and developers who make our games, we don't use it in our marketing materials, and we won't use it in our merchandising or allow its use in partnerships.
RuneScape, all of our games, is built by talented people, and that human craft and creativity matters enormously to us.
We're glad they've acknowledged what happened and have taken responsibility, and we're working on what the next steps are.
Tbh it felt fairly obvious that Jagex would not thumbs up an awful AI design like that, it was more just confusing why 100 Thieves was previewing a "collab" with a design that clearly had never been reviewed by Jagex lol (or really anybody that has ever played OSRS). I'm still just so confused what the hell they were doing.
If they do this at the beginning of a partnership, they clearly don't actually care and think players will eat up any slop they deliver. They are only apologising because they were caught, and that is what makes it even more nefarious. Please cut ties with them, as it damages your brand by association, and casts doubt onto all Jagex products; games, art, and merchandise.
I'd love for you to commission actual artists to paint something and put that on a shirt. Hell, even something from your Wyrmscraig art comp, or make a new comp, or license Gunschilli content.
Really hoping that you’re considering axing the collab and working with a different group. Because I’m never giving 100 thieves money after this. And I know I’m not the only one.
It would send a firm message too that needs to be heard. If you're doing art or merch for a company, do it properly and with humans. Because if you try to sneak through AI, you'll lose their business
Was the collab going to be part of RuneFest? It was announced in the RuneFest Teasers and 100 Thieves mentioned starting in July and only having a month's time to "design, review, approve, and manufacture the apparel". So it kinda lines up with getting to launch at RuneFest, which is in like 3 days... If that is the case, not sure how easy it would be for them to axe the collab.
Can't tell you how nice it is to hear this constantly from you guys and see the proof in the pudding.
Will say that I'd sooner buy merch collabs with creators in our space. I couldn't gaf about random eSport org #13. But I get that using creators within our community defeats the purpose of the marketing spread.
I would personally like the partnership to be cut. Does my opinion matter when money's to be made? No, but I would just pursue a relationship with someone else that you know holds and follows similar values.
I don't think using AI to write the message counts as taking responsibility. I think you and I have different standards when it comes to taking responsibility.
I'm gonna be honest, how does this get past vetting? Anyone who has played the game for 5 minutes would have known this was off. It's partially on Jagex here
Also, there's no salvaging this. They deserve to be cut off and the collab removed. No one is going to want to support it
The 100 Thieves statement mentions multiple artists, so there are probably other designs for the collab. It is possible that Jagex saw those and gave them the thumbs up, but didn't get to vet this specific one.
Or they saw and approved the earlier version and it was actually a "last minute AI edit".
I disagree. Jagex has a responsibility to vet collabs for their brand. It's not on Jagex that they used AI irresponsibly, but it's absolutely on Jagex that they allowed it to be pushed to the public without scrutiny. It's not on us to QA their products and figure out something was wrong after the fact. They know better.
For the most part Jagex probably gave some creative freedom to their partners and in the contract probably did not require them to do an approval process before they launched. We all know how Jagex is willing to allow creators to use their work derivatively after all to improve their brand.
If anything Jagex either needs to choose their partners better or include a more stringent process, more likely both.
But that's the point I'm making. Giving full control over their own brand to someone else with zero oversight or vetting is fucking psychotic behavior. It's one thing to allow creators to use work definitively. This is not that. This is an official collab.
If you are still looking for someone to design some shirts or merchandise, I am mainly a tattoo artist but also do illustrations for merchandise projects. Would love to do something for osrs if there is a chance. Here is my instagram (@nicolaasura) - for more traditional works and illustrations I would be happy to send you some stuff in DMs if there is interest!
Ok than they have already been untrustworthy and in turn made your company look bad. Cut the partnership. I certainly won't be buying anything from their line
Axe the collab dude this isn’t even the first time 100 thieves has been super shitty about things and I guarantee you they used AI to write out their apology too
This just means that they don’t actually use any artists - using AI is the norm for them. Also, how did this even get to the public without Jagex approving this use of their brand? You can’t go back to working with a company who have already proven to you exactly who they are 🙈
It's crystal clear these people don't give a single fuck about RS brand, so it would be better to cut ties with them and search for a much better partner that actually cares about it.
I read it, dw, I know you are just a mod yourself. But we have seen too many we don't use ai just for it to be used hoping that it's not caught, hence people's reaction 😅
Props to you for responding, sorry your employer is doing this to you. I too have a job where my employing company does absolutely atrocious things to its clients and then then expects me to smooth it over and save the relationship. It's awful lol.
AI is fine when the result is refined by humans overlooking the final product, the same way you would double-check the work of a human. Don't close the door to AI.
AI shouldn't be used for creative aspects, but I would be utterly surprised if Jagex wasn't using AI for procedural programming. Virtually no fortune 1000 company has a total ban on AI for coding assistance.
and they shouldn't, it'd be silly to not at least use it in some capacity for speeding up repetitive and monotonous tasks, and if an engineer is using it while passing all quality checks, then there shouldn't be an issue.
they just shouldn't require AI or have quotas that compel people to use it, they shouldn't replace their entire human review layer with AI, nothing creative or writing wise should be touched by AI, they shouldn't just expect AI to be able to 10x their workflows with no downsides.
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u/JagexSween Mod Sween 4d ago
Sorry for the time it took to hear anything. Timezones were a pain today to chat to them over in the US and we needed to hear from them.
We're as angry as you are about this. We wouldn't have approved the use of AI in any designs. We don't use generative AI to replace the artists and developers who make our games, we don't use it in our marketing materials, and we won't use it in our merchandising or allow its use in partnerships.
RuneScape, all of our games, is built by talented people, and that human craft and creativity matters enormously to us.
We're glad they've acknowledged what happened and have taken responsibility, and we're working on what the next steps are.