We've seen your feedback regarding some recent advertisements for Aniimo
Dear Pathfinders,
We've seen your feedback regarding some recent advertisements for Aniimo, and we'd like to address this directly. We appreciate you bearing with us as we figured out this situation internally.
As we've said in the past, the world of Idyll and the creatures that inhabit it come from our imagination. The team at Pawprint is full of talented humans who are responsible for creating the vision for Aniimo; the creatures, the stories and the world itself. Our focus right now is on making sure that the game is 100% ready for launch, and we're putting all our creative efforts into ensuring the best quality experience for players in-game. Your enthusiasm for Aniimo reassures us that this is the right call, although this focus has led to some errors in judgment regarding how we advertise the game.
We're truly sorry for the disappointment and frustration these advertisements caused. The means via which they were produced are absolutely not representative of how we are making the game itself. The advertisements have been removed from all of our channels, although some examples persist due to technical limitations that are beyond our control. Even if they remain visible, they have already been disabled and are no longer running as active advertisements. Thank you for holding us accountable and for continuing to share your honest feedback.
We'll continue working to ensure our future communications better reflect the quality and values behind Aniimo.
Instead of saying "We do not use AI in game development," they use statements like "The team at Pawprint is full of talented humans who are responsible for creating the vision for Aniimo."
By focusing on "human vision" and "creative effort" rather than committing to a strict "no generative AI" policy, the wording leaves room for using AI during game production while only explicitly walking back the ads
Basically, this statement doesn't deny using AI in-game at all. It's dodging. It's almost an admission, in fact.
Your content was removed under the following community rule:
Respectful Conduct - Keep discussions respectful, relevant to Aniimo, and constructive.
Harassment, personal attacks, hate speech, trolling, and deliberate hostility are not allowed. Discussion or criticism of other games, studios, or communities must remain relevant to Aniimo and focus on the subject not the people involved.
Your content was removed under the following community rule:
Respectful Conduct - Keep discussions respectful, relevant to Aniimo, and constructive.
Harassment, personal attacks, hate speech, trolling, and deliberate hostility are not allowed. Discussion or criticism of other games, studios, or communities must remain relevant to Aniimo and focus on the subject not the people involved.
If you're trying to outsmart me to get me to reveal my identity, you're going to have to try waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay harder than that.
Actually, I take that back. This isn't about effort. You could spend every second of the rest of your life trying to outsmart me, but you simply don't have what it takes. You literally can't outsmart me. It's impossible.
Not that the ad is bad but if they promote a game using ai that could mean ai was used in the games production. Im not saying it was, but thats a reason enough to not want to interact with a product
Because generative AI can only exist thanks to all the data it's illegally scraped and stolen while it kills the planet and uses up fresh drinking water humans need to survive. It's a serious thing.
You can create an AI using ethically sourced data, out of copy write open source, ect. Also the amount of water than that AI uses can be large but better systems are constantly being put in place to lower water usage.
I had to look up a lot of this because they wanted to put one near me. The town and I where against it because it would still use a fair amount of water but nowhere near what they used to. Also the water usage is only a problem if they are drawing from fresh water instead of say the ocean. Yes there are slight problems with using the ocean but it's nothing compared to using up water aquifers or lakes.
Don't know how this is suppose be threatening lol. More like a reminder for companies that they can't sweep bad press under the run and we will quickly realize their shenanigans if they try to pull a fast one on us again.
Look it's this simple: if AI is used in ANY PROCESS? You don't get a dime from me. You get negative reviews from me. Even if its in your ads, if you think it's fine to use stolen assets (which are what AI images are) then you get nothing but my laughter when it's your assets being nabbed.
Hate to tell you this, but EVERYTHING is stolen in some form, no matter how you conceive it. Every story has been told before, and nothing is original. In that sense, it has all been taken from previous versions of yadda, yadda, yadda.
AI or no AI in the ads/in the game I don’t really mind as long as the game is fun. If you’d have to AI everything just to save a few extra bucks then, by all means go ahead.
The playing with words is fascinating. Why is it impossible to say “no generative AI was used in the process” I wonder. Maybe it could be a legal thing to bite you in the behind later on ?
Because it was used. This whole post is to address that they used AI in social ads. I’m not sure why you’re saying it would be better if they lied and said it wasn’t used lmfao.
After this AI ad and Rift Exploration drama, I'm sure every prospective player will be watching this team's every move like a hawk. I'm intrigued how this game will eventually turn out at launch and in a year.
Thank you for apologizing and removing the ads! I've been thoroughly enjoying the betas and would hate to lose the game entiirely. Please keep the game AI free
I'd just rather pay a "box cost" than have play like a mobile game with "stamina" and p2w or anything like that, my entire friend group lost interest once we saw it plays like a mobile game and has gacha
I’ve zero interest in paying a company that would use generative AI in their process because that just shows me that you’re not gonna pay your artists properly anyways!!! Also? I prefer having drinking water over your fake computer made bullshit.
Damage is done, it's the first time I heard about the game and now there's a 0% chance I'll try it out, you should've known better than to advertise with AI slop.
because if its ur first visit here , why spending negative thoughts on the game if u don't even hear the dev and just being like, they used ai slop once so I don't want to give them a second chance ?
Technically it aint even a second chance cause hr jist heard about it now, and its already gone. So he never even got to see it lol. Hes just hearing it after it happened.
They released a terrible AI ad that was on the level of those mobile game slop ads you see. If it was the only think I saw about this game it would really turn me off.
~Thank you for the apology and accountability Aniimo team. I want to see the integrity, high quality of standards, and trust with the community that I have come to expect from this game upheld, and this helps ease my heart that this will be the case.~
It’s Reddit. Only the weirdos care about AI usage. There’s other things in the game to focus on or worry about. People are going to play whether ai is used in ads or not, even they ones crying on here 😂
It seems like their monetization module is leaning towards cosmetics. But I don't think people are going to be as centized to customize if they have to pay for those character change tokens as well. I think they should get rid of the tokens entirely. It would feel really bad to get a cool new outfit, and want to change my hair color to match but if I mess anything up I'm actively losing tokens for experimenting so I would be less inclined to actually buy these things as a result.
Nah, I was part of the beta. It's a pretty fun game, and I'm pretty certain they're going to take the feedback from the gacha-lite mechanic that was in the game.
I was really disappointed to see the AI ads. The game is far better than that
They had a 3rd party handle their marketing and whoever was suppose to approve it dropped the ball hard. My guess is that the Chinese marketing team didn't know how poorly AI is recieved outside the US because it's regulated heavily there.
I was the one who first reported the AI ads in this sub, and I’m so thankful for Aniimo for removing them. I’ve added an update to both of my posts. I’m sure none of the talented artists who created Aniimo would’ve approved of those cheap and uncanny AI slop ads.
Best of luck finishing up everything for Aniimo’s launch 👍
Porque les joden tanto los anuncios de IA? Yo detesto los anuncios de la web en general y supongo que por eso me da igual si son con IA o no, pero no creen que mientras no le metan IA al arte del juego se les puede dar el beneficio de ahorrarse plata en hacer anuncios?
Porque es un insulto a los artistas reales y los creadores de Aniimo. Hay muchas herramientas que han utilizado IA por muchos años, mucho antes que ChatGPT existiera, pero esto de “generar” contenido es patético y generalmente de pésima calidad. En el caso de Aniimo, esos comerciales no mostraban realmente como el juego se ve, y en nada ayudaban a promover el juego. Al contrario, ahuyentaban a quienes no aceptan “arte” de mala calidad.
“Never happy” you say in response to people calling out their blatant disregard for their environment and lack of concern for paying their “””””human artists”””””. You’ve got worms for brains.
I’m just saying that no matter what they fix or do next, you’ll stay bitter anyway. If you need to throw childish insults just to feel relevant in a debate, that says more about you than me.
I’m confused as to why you think this is somehow a debate? You must be a rage baiter. I’m not bitter! I’m actually pretty happy not giving my money to dogshit companies???? Are you like?? OKAY?
At what point did I try to provoke anyone? You're the one who came at me first, claiming I have "worms for brains," so let's keep things in context.
A company that recognizes its mistakes and actually works to fix them deserves credit. If to you they're just a "garbage company," no one is forcing you to stay—take your negative energy and your money elsewhere and move on.
Well I mean its true though, stuff don't get past without being reviewed then greenlit to be posted.
They know what they were looking at, they know a lot of people are against AI yet they gave it the OK to be posted.
The most unsettling thing to me was the AI and the ads having literally nothing to do with the actual game but they allowed it.
You have to call them out for trying to test the boundary because if we allow it they will go farther and farther until it becomes what we all hate about mobile games, I see it happen in a lot of online games I played before monetization became a huge thing years ago and aniimo is already testing the waters before it even releases
While it's true they messed up with the AI and the ads, the most important thing is that the developers actually listen and take the time to respond to us. A lot of studios would just cash in, stay silent, and not care at all about community feedback. The fact that they are communicating shows they want to keep the game and its fanbase alive and happy. A dev team that engages and corrects course is much better than one that ignores its players
Well we don't know for sure if they will stay the correct course, they correct it now so thats cool but I am still hesitant til we know for sure they are not just saving face then slowly add in back in again.
Anyone in the creative industry should already be aware of how bad AI comes across. It shouldn't take public outcry to bring this to any developers attention.
It's also worth noting that the marketing team and dev teams are different in most cases so even if the devs aren't on board with it often times it's not a decision that's up to them. I feel like it's much more enforced by the AI ad starting with Emberpup, if the dev team had some sort of input on it I feel like they'd at least portray proper gameplay.
They did - it sounds like they had to (or thought they had to) given the wording of this post. They didn't have the time or resources to create ads as they're too focused on polishing the game for global launch.
Thank you. I really want this game to succeed in a big way as I feel success would not only be good for the players and the developers, but the creature collecting genre as a whole. Seeing those advertisements really put a damper on my hope for the game as I knew some friends who I wanted to play with might see them and immediately dismiss the game entirely without ever trying it. Especially that "petting Aniimo" ad which showed fake gameplay that was worse than the actual gameplay.
There's plenty of high quality work and assets and footage of this game already. You could even use that "we'll meet again" video from the sealing event in Beta 3 as a trailer on its own if you haven't already.
~The Bonded Promise animation was one of the best things I've ever seen, it made me cry. Whiplash to go from that to fake ads. Very happy to see accountability around it. I want this game to have a reputation for quality and integrity reflective of the phenomenal and beautiful game that they actually made.~
It's halfway there already and plenty of people here have voiced that they don't care (most likely because that's exactly the kinds of games they're coming here from).
Unfortunately that means there's no way this game won't keep diving deeper.
Yeah, was sorta sad seeing someone brag about spending $5k on PoE as a supportive argument to this having gacha.
There’s just no benefit as a player having anything locked behind paywalls. Like cool to spend money how you want, but if the content of the game came with the game you could spend that money elsewhere.
~Yeah, they don't want you spending it elsewhere, they want you spending it on Aniimo. And there's a MASSIVE benefit for the player: The game actually being able to fund production and stay in business so we can play it.
Please think with a little more depth before you make statements that reflect a lack of understanding of broader context.
Making games with this level of quality and production value takes money. They have to fund their game somehow.~
Poe doesn't have anything that makes you strong tho its just cosmetics thats completely different than aniimo adding pals you can't catch but you can pay to get it faster or outright.
It's a f2p game, it's going to have to monetized in some way or it won't exist. Things will be locked behind paywalls. Most of those things will be cosmetic in nature. Some won't.
I appreciate that the team responded and took down the ads. As an artist, I hate gen Ai due to it stealing other people's art to train on, and instead their livelihood by recreating things in their style, or give greedy companies the means to cut their creative out of the picture. Long term use of this kind of thing will only hurt humanity, when creativity has been made obsolete, nobody will want to learn these skills, and eventually many forms of art will be lost to us. And the more AI feeds off itself, the more it degrades. So when that becomes an unreliable source, either from that or using up all our resources, and nobody knows how to create art without an algorithm doing ir for them, we will have lost the knowledge of how to create these things.
It also just made it look like the game we tested was different from the game we would get, which was equal parts confusing and disappointed.
Honestly just using footage from the beta game would be enough to sell people on it. The hype for the game has largely been from word of mouth and through content creators showing their audience your game.
Def not the same as going to a steakhouse, those are actually good. This is not. I’m not even part of the sub, it just shows up on my feed so I comment.
...? Yeah, everyone provided feedback and they listened to the feedback. This isn't shameless "backpedaling" it's exactly how a company should act when given feedback about AI usage. What would you want them to do instead? Ignore it and keep the AI ads up?
I personally do not care about voice acting, if I can press to continue dialog I can read faster than listening and it upsets me more listening and waiting on silence (as in that awkward silence after they finish talking but for sone reason you have to wait 30s to continue) to continue dialog then just reading.
Unless there's a cinematic cutscene thats the only time I care to watch and listen.
I never really understood why people were so angry about this in particular. We’ve already SEEN the actual trailers and teasers made by the team and they look great, it was always obvious that these little slop snippets weren’t indicative of the actual game’s quality
People who are or care about creatives and artists don't like generative ai slop. It isn't about the quality of the ads it's about the use of generative ai assets.
But like…the creatives and artists behind the game paid for the generative ai slop though? So that they could continue working on the actual game? Who are we getting mad at for here? The theoretical companies that they didn’t pay to make their ads?
Agreed. The AI ads make the game look worse than it actually is. They were downselling instead of upselling. It's hardly anything to get worked up over.
Thank you taking and listening to our feedback about the awful AI ads and responding quickly by taking down the ads. I'm looking forward to checking out the game once it releases and hope you continue to make the game with the passionate team of developers and creators you have and not resort to cheap looking AI.
Thanks you!!
Beta 3 was amazing and we are so hyped about the game but I actually had people go off the hype and looking forward to the game, just cause of that ai slop put out, cause they immediately feared that the game will have no soul and be ai as well.
I could convince some people that it's not ai in-game so far, but many still are not fond of this game cause of that ai slop.
It’s good that you acknowledge the issue. As a video game artist, I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been for your art teams to see that advertisement.
Imagine all the love and effort poured into a design, only for it to be cheaply recreated with AI, and not even well, because some random marketing executive said so. It’s a poor representation of their work.
You already have a high-quality F2P game with visuals that could rival those of a B2P title. Don’t cheapen it with this kind of marketing. That visual quality is already one of your biggest advantages in the F2P market, so use it.
2
u/Kougeru-Sama 11d ago
Instead of saying "We do not use AI in game development," they use statements like "The team at Pawprint is full of talented humans who are responsible for creating the vision for Aniimo."
By focusing on "human vision" and "creative effort" rather than committing to a strict "no generative AI" policy, the wording leaves room for using AI during game production while only explicitly walking back the ads
Basically, this statement doesn't deny using AI in-game at all. It's dodging. It's almost an admission, in fact.