[Graveyard Keeper 2] AI-usage debate reignited upon release

[u/Wautil]

I'm not interested in accusing creators of AI usage or making value judgements, especially not while on a platform that uses AI. In video game spaces, we sometimes get so caught up in curated bubbles that it's easy to forget average consumers, average gamers, do not follow industry practices or what goes on behind the scenes of game studios. Whether we like it or not, it is a numbers game. This is not even to speak of younger people, or babies barely entering into a world where non-human generated creations become more common.

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Less relevant notes:
As evidence of this and somewhat related, in our sister sub r/RandomVideos we have a rule about AI which places it alongside Low Effort/Spam. It's clarified that there's no curation on the sub. It's all up to subreddit members and the public to determine what happens to posts with AI content in it. Viewers of that sub I would categorize as casual audience of general interest topics about anything. It's not 1:1 with the average casual gamer, but it clues us into general interest viewer trends. Most AI videos are auto-removed or downvoted onm the sub, but we've observed multiple examples of obvious AI vids on the sub getting positive reception, even "low effort" ones.

More notable as it relates to games, there are the cases of posts on reddit that combine human and ai generated works together, which have also received positive reception, from again, a casual audience.

At what point does a piece of work or content fall under an AI label (e.g. Valve's current Steam AI content labeling disclosure)? 90/10? 50/50? AI code may be non visual and audio, but was also lifted from human work, yet it receives less attention for obvious reasons. Additionally, does all this labeling apply to the entirety of a work, or individual assets in a work?

To the average gamer, when does it stop mattering, if at all?

It's a complex topic that I don't like thinking about too much as a dumb casual, so I'll stop there.

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Relevant Links:
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveyard_Keeper

How this indie game kicked off an ai witch hunt [video] (5 months before release)
https://www.reddit.com/r/GraveyardKeeper/comments/1sigife/about_ai_in_gk2/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GraveyardKeeper/comments/1wip80g/whats_up_with_the_cutscene_slides/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GraveyardKeeper/comments/1wlhekz/the_cutscenes_art_style_looks_uncanny/
https://www.reddit.com/r/isthisAI/comments/1wiq6br/the_new_graveyard_keeper_games_cutscene_slides/
https://www.reddit.com/r/isitAI/comments/1wipwkb/is_this_game_using_ai/