New(ish) Video! The Worrying Problem With AI Video Games (ad-free!)

Hey everyone!

Just uploading this as it didn't work in November—the AI Minecraft video, but ad-free!

Talk of generative AI feels like it's taken over every facet of modern life, and games are no exception. Oasis represents the first AI generated open world game, if its developer's website is to be believed and, well... it's Minecraft. But it's way, way worse. AI Minecraft is the worst game I've ever played. It's bad in ways you wouldn't believe—broken and unstable in a way that could see you compare it to the films of Cronenberg, if the explicit intent of the tech company Decart wasn't to use artificial intelligence to replace conventional game engines, and presumably the people who operate them. It's also being celebrated as the supposed future of this medium, by people who have zero interest in art and every interest in money, and yet they fully control the industry that produces that art.

AI in game development is something CEOs are investing everything into so they can save money on pesky worker salaries, and already people are losing their jobs and less games are able to be made. In this video essay, I journey into the depths of AI Minecraft so you don't have to—discussing harsh noise, Buddy Rich and the true, pro-labour nature of Luddism to conclude that if AI Minecraft is the future of games, then it's a very grim future indeed.

Uploading this to the main channel was an interesting experience. I think it's a good video (if I do say so myself) and I had fun making it. That said, it acted as a reminder of what happens when a video gets into the algorithm and gets served up to people who didn't ask for it. AI enthusiasts see a video that says "AI GAMING IS AWFUL" and my comments are suddenly flooded with dafties telling me I was a technophobic idiot who would have hated cars or TV back in the day or whatever—despite the fact I discuss that very notion later in the video.

The point of the vid isn't "AI games are bad now and therefore will always be bad." It's that people are losing their jobs right now as higher ups doggedly pursue AI as a means of cutting human creatives with salary requirements out of the game making process. This shite is already having a tangible effect on the games industry, therefore I think it's valid to examine what the end product of that is right now.

But anyway, I hope you enjoy (or have already enjoyed) the video. I also hope you had a good Christmas if you celebrate, and a Good Day if you don't! I had a few days of doing basically nothing but eat food and watch movies, which my rapidly burning-out body desperately needed. I guess I played a couple of games too, which will be getting discussed in the upcoming tenth (!) game of the year video. Wild to think about. Definitely some fun stuff to come in the next week or so, and none of it would be possible without your unbelievably generous support. You continue to make this happen, and I could not be more grateful.

Thank you so much,

Hamish

Writing on Games