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Do we even know how Riot will use generative AI? I think generative AI can be fine if it’s used in the “right” way.
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What if they do an in-game chatty support AI ?
Problem is that OW isn’t an artsy game, its meant to make money. Collabs are good example of it.
Also, for some meshes and textures, its just about filling it up.
Riot hasn’t used Generative AI yet, but the writing is on the wall. They wouldn’t post those job listings just to not fill them. They also fired a lot of their artists. As an artist, even a Generative AI voiceline would be enough to make me leave the game. UI would probably be the one of the only things that I’d be fine with. Blizzard has proven their human made art is top notch, it should not be replaced to cut costs.
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If they’re gonna try to use it to replace human artists, then that’s just dumb.
I do think there’s a place for AI art, but only as an assistant to human artists (in fact, I would say that’s how AI should be used in general. As an assistant). Like I think it might be possible to use AI to do inbetweening for 2D animation. Or to convert 3D animation into 2D animation.
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I understand your point of view. Overwatch has proven that they don’t need any Generative AI though and that is what my issue with it is. If they do use an AI assistant as you said, I would hope they would let us know in what ways it was being used. I would be fine if they used it to get an idea for a skin, rather than have an AI design a skin, for example.
That tends to be how I use it for my personal art pieces. I never publicly post anything AI generated, but sometimes I use AI to generate random images to get a random spark of inspiration. If anything sticks out, I then draw something manually from it.
Also, I think what Sony did with the PS5 Pro is a good example of using AI. It uses AI to upscale the resolution.
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I don’t like the idea of generative AI being used for art in a video game. But there are other applications of generative AI like AI anti-cheat or AI assisted level design (but that’s more for games with lots of open area not games like Overwatch where it would be obvious and bad).
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I would be fine with that just as long as they are transparent about it. My worry is that like Riot they try to fire their existing artists and replace them with AI. Everything on the backend that doesn’t affect the human made art I have no issue with, like upscaling (as long as it’s done right), PVE enemy behavior, anti-cheat, etc.
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I’m sorry, but the designs in this game have been in serious decline for awhile now. Most of the skins are unimaginative drivel or recolors. Using AI to generate skins honestly would probably be a step up from what they’ve been sending out.
Marvel Rivals has opened my eyes to just how uninspired the skins on OW have been.
Gestures to most of the mythic skins, map aesthetics, gamemodes like Junkenstien’s Lab. Yes we have recolors, but we have plenty of amazing original skins as well. If you can’t see that, it’s just a skill issue.
Ehh, Marval Rivals does a lot of things right over Overwatch, but art direction isn’t one of them. It gets gameplay and battle passes right, but Overwatch is still superior in terms of art direction.
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You’re joking, right…?
Compare any of those to OW1 and it’s clear how far they’ve fallen off. Temple of Anubis Paris, Lunar Colony compared to Esparanca and Survasa. The difference in quality in creativity is very clear.
Junkenstein’s Lab (Reused assets from years ago) versus Junkenstein’s Revenge/Retribution/Storm Rising/Lucio Ball.
Don’t even get me started on the garbage, out of touch, disrespectful mythic skins they’ve released.
Maybe from an Overall Artstyle perspective (I despise the cartoony cel-shaded appearance they went with), but have you seen the Marvel Rival’s skins? Each character gets unique, creative, and distinct skins that are far more reasonable to attain (from what I’ve seen at least).
Its inevitable that Blizzard will utilize AI; this is the same company that focuses on profits rather than making a decent game over the past few years. Them firing a big portion of their art department is evident of this.
If it saves Blizzards CEO a mere penny over a artist, they would 100% take the penny.
Overwatch’s skin problem isn’t that they’re badly designed. It’s simply a monetization problem and that’s it. And sometimes they’re a bit over reliant on recoloring (which isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes I want a different colored version of an existing skin).
Artistically, Overwatch has better voice acting, animation, sound design. Like Black Panther, Wolverine and Venom all have the same (or similar looking) walking animations, where as every Overwatch hero has their own walk animation that highlights their individuality. And personally, apart from the most famous Marvel characters, I think Overwatch characters are just better, both in terms of looks, and overall characterization. A lot of Marvel characters I think are just plain lame.
Like I think Widowmaker is a cooler character than Black Widow. Widowmaker leans more into the spider theme where as Black Widow is just some red-head in a black suit.
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Suravasa is one of the most beautiful maps in the game. Esperanca is at least above Watchpoint in terms of aesthetics. And we got a sequel to Junkenstien’s Revenge. Everyone knows the PVE development was rocky, but at least we got three missions and they are using assets that were scrapped from PVE. And besides Orisa’s mythic skin, I can’t think of any others that aren’t good. Anubis Reaper came out last season and it’s the best Reaper skin in the game by far in my opinion. Spellbinder Widowmaker is very cool, unique, and I love the animations for it. Reinhardt’s upcoming mythic skin looks better then some of the previous tank mythic skins as well. The only cosmetics in Marvel Rivals that are better are the highlight intros. Everything else is the same or less quality.
I hope AI catches on, I know it replaces jobs, but all automation and advancements replace jobs. The potential for AI art will revolutionize the industry, and I can’t wait for what AI will be able to do.
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We don’t know what role it will play. Riot has made a very strict stance against AI generated Art in the past if i’m not mistaken. They could be trying to develop some sort of system to replace the current automated support with one based on text generation, as far as we know
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Sorry for the off-topic question, I don’t follow you on this. Players typically pick their mains based on hero personality and gameplay that matches their interest best, and the LGBTQ community is not the majority of the playerbase. How would a transgender hero attract more players?
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I have mixed feelings on Generative AI . Using it for 3D models is very wonky and no service has truly perfected it, though texture generation can be useful. I can see them using it for art and maybe voice lines but I feel human input will still need to be present.
However for AI usage, I am more favorable to deep learning as that can help with research and gameplay development.
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