An “AI video contest” run by Party Animals devs Recreate Games has been canceled, and the studio has issued an apology today.
Last week, Recreate announced the contest, encouraging users to make Party Animals-themed videos with AI prompts, with up to $75,000 in prize money up for grabs. The community backlash was so overwhelming that the studio apologized and ran a poll to decide the next course of action for the cutesy-brawler.
The community decided in a big way that the event should be canceled, with 57.3 percent of the vote. Just 8.1 percent voted to keep AI in the contest but add a “non-AI track,” while 34.6 percent voted to change it to a non-AI contest.
“Following the announcement of this event, we received a significant amount of negative feedback,” Recreate Games said in a statement this morning, confirming the cancellation. “We have read through your comments and opinions one by one. We must admit that our consideration of the event’s conception was insufficient, the design was inadequately thought through, and our communication with the community was not up to par. “
Recreate said that “our original intention was to encourage more diverse forms of creative expression and lower the barrier to entry, allowing more players who love Party Animals to participate,” but it “mistakenly tied ‘lowering the barrier’ together with ‘using AI.'”
“To the players who were troubled, disappointed, or offended by this situation, we would like to once again express our sincere apologies,” the statement continued. “To every player who voiced criticism, participated in the vote, and pushed us to re-evaluate this issue, we would like to express our most sincere gratitude.” The studio said it “will approach related topics with a much more humble and cautious attitude” in the future.
It seems that there is a pretty big disconnect with how AI is viewed in the West vs. in the East, where the Shanghai-based Recreate operates. I do find it hard to believe, though, that no one at the studio spoke out against potential repercussions about the contest as it was being concocted.
