Unfortunately, Asmongold Is Right About Artists

Streamer Asmongold is currently going viral for his thoughts on Palworld, but these thoughts are more specifically on the use of AI, and more specifically again on what it means to be an artist. The emotional reaction to this speech going viral (indeed, the reason it went viral), has been to tell Asmongold he's wrong. But he's right. It's upsetting to hear, but he's still right. That doesn't mean he's not also wrong, but you can't confront the ways he's wrong without first admitting that he's mostly right.

Artists' opinions don't matter... what matters is the opinion of the people buying the product

This is what Asmongold said that has gotten everyone riled up, and that's understandable. In gaming (as in most mediums), there are studios that exist primarily to create art, and others that exist primarily to make money. But to have sustained success, your art needs to make at least enough money that it doesn't make a loss. It's a harsh sentiment from Asmongold, but it's not without merit.

The phrase 'the customer is always right' is more used these days to justify outlandish actions or demands for special treatment by individual, entitled patrons, but that's not what it originally meant. Instead, the was advice for businesses. If you sell burgers and your potential customers all say they love hot dogs, start making hot dogs. Businesses don't need to convince customers to follow them, they need to follow the trends of customers.

Right now, Palworld is making hot dogs. It may be using stolen meat and recipes copied from a variety of other cookbooks, but ultimately it is looking at what it thinks customers want and is giving it to them. Nine million hot dogs later, Palworld is right. The customer is right. And with it, Asmongold is right.

What he was specifically referencing was AI usage in games. Essentially, he feels it doesn't matter if artists are against the practice as long as players are prepared to embrace AI games, and he's right. If players all balked at the thought of generative AI, it wouldn't get made. The fact is AI is cheaper and easier, more flexible (less call to scale up and down as you need to with humans), and as long as it's good enough to work, players won't care.

While there has been some debate, there is no concrete evidence that Palworld uses generative AI, that was merely the catalyst for this talking point.

There are two reasons I don't like generative AI in gaming. The first is that it takes jobs, but we all have to understand that this is not a factor customers care about, and that alone will not be a successful rallying cry. The second reason is that I don't believe it will ever be as good. It can make hot dogs, sure it can. As many as you like, and all delicious. I love hot dogs. But I don't always want hot dogs. Sometimes I want steak. Pasta alla vodka. Hake risotto. Maybe just a good old fashioned burger. Human writers, designers, and artists can make those things for me, and invent new dishes I couldn't dream of. AI will be stuck making hot dogs because all these dreams of AI dialogue will lead to a vast and shallow sea of generic, lowest common denominator responses, rather than the specific and curated options that a human being gives me.

That's why Asmongold is also wrong. It is important to be mindful of the audience, but you can't win by only giving people what they want. Baldur's Gate 3 swept the awards last year and outsold expectations by a huge margin. Yet if you’d asked people at the start of the year what sort of game they wanted, a recreation of Dungeons & Dragons with an esoteric focus on lore, slow and meticulous turn-based dice roll combat, and little to no dragons wouldn't have been their answer.

In fact, 2023’s other major award winners Tears of the Kingdom and Alan Wake 2 were the result of artist opinion rather than audience-led design as well. Alan Wake 2 might not have sold as well as the other two here, but the sales figures for Tears of the Kingdom (not to mention The Last of Us, Portal, Doom, and Metal Gear Solid) show that games made by artists imagining something fresh and exciting end up being exactly what players want.

If you stumble along at the right time, you might make a quick buck selling hot dogs, but the more studios lean into AI, the less chance of a hot dog shortage. Asmongold is right that the opinions of the players will be what shapes the market, but reliance on that entirely quickly leads to a dead end. We will always need artists' opinions to keep moving things forward, because you can't break down a brick wall with hot dogs.

Palworld

WHERE TO PLAY

Palworld has been described as Pokemon with guns and well, it's hard to argue with that. The game is very similar in nature to the Pokemon formula, tasking you with catching and working with monsters called Pals. There are key differences, though. Palworld is rooted in multiplayer, oh, and, unlike Pokemon, its Pals have guns.