Party Animals, a mainstay of wacky multiplayer hijinks for friends and streamers everywhere, is facing major backlash from fans after announcing an AI-centric ‘art’ contest called the Golden Paw Awards – with a $15,000 cash prize for first place.
The competition was announced via social media on May 12, and instantly sparked controversy for not only including AI but for its rule stating “AIGC must be the core creative tool, including but not limited to AI-generated images, video, music, voiceovers, 3D assets, etc.”
Following review bombing, the developers have paused the contest and released an apologetic statement.
AI Contest Generates Controversy
After the official Party Animals social media accounts announced the contest, the fan reaction was immediate and definitive as the games’ reviews plummeted from Very Positive to Mostly Negative seemingly overnight.
“Rest in peace, loved this game but they’re leaning into AI now so I will now longer support this company”, wrote one Steam reviewer with 26 hours in the game.
Another reviewer with over 370 hours wrote, “Giving 75K to people who just press a button to generate AI slop is such an affront to creating games and encouraging the pursuit of art. Real disappointed that this is the direction they’re going.”
Hilariously, the rules for the competition included a disqualification for plagiarism, which seems to be willfully ignorant of AI stealing real art from humans to ‘create’ a new amalgamation.
Recreate Games Backs Down
Following the largely negative reaction to their contest, the developers behind Party Animals have posted an explanation while leaving the path forward up to fans. The reason for including AI was, apparently, accessibility, as they wrote “we hoped AI could be a more accessible tool that lets people take part.”
Continuing their apology, “we understand the concerns around AI content. We are not trying to dismiss handmade work or disrespect creators. To us, AI is just another tool. What we truly care about is the idea, the expression, and the final work.”
As for the contest, Party Animals has laid out the options to either cancel the contest entirely, change it to exclude AI generated content, or create a separate AI category.
While it’s good that the developers are addressing concerns immediately and handing their community the reins in the next decision, the reputation of the game as been irreversibly damaged. Nowadays in indie games, the only thing AI generates is disdain from fans who value real human creativity and art.
