End of Term

Craft Methodology

At Altdevarts we have been exploring AI and its uses in the game development space. In an attempt to be good stewards we have looked into numerous platforms out there that want to try to build some part of the game pipeline through AI. Some offer bits while others want to offer entire games at the speed of prompt.

When it comes to AI development for games, I see a tough impasse.

We need the AI to be expertly trained but if you use training data from all of the current games you’ll get the most average game possible. That sucks. To modify the game you now need to be a full developer as then using AI becomes a full skill set.

Instead of developing a game as intended we are developing prompts, or we need to have both skills, and the bar for entry is raised.

We need the AI to generate not the average of other games but the intent of the experience of what the creator actually wants. This is what we have looked at.

I wanted to see how the broader market handles it but that is immature.

Coming to terms

I’ve talked to companies with the primary goal to quickly earn money. No hate, just facts. They want to tie together as many publicly available pieces at once to get something of a good demo and then hopefully sell the company. I assume M&A would do proper discovery and decide how exciting that is for their company.

Next, I see companies being so scrappy that they appear to be overusing AI themselves today. As an example one AI game generation company out there has this in their FAQ which appears to be probably inspired by a human:

Sounds good right?

In their terms of service they say:

“Services include access to an online database of games and corresponding code (“Materials”) for you to download and use to develop your own games.”

Later it is stated that:

3. License to Use the Services and Materials

… You are further granted a nonexclusive worldwide license and right to use, modify, distribute and create derivative works of the Materials available through the Services for both personal and commercial purposes, provided that such use complies with all applicable laws and these Terms.

The definition of materials is a bit vague though it does seem like the license is stating you don’t own the rights to anything you generate with the AI for your game.

None of that really matters though because of this:

“You are responsible for regularly reviewing the Terms, as the Terms may be modified at any time. All such modifications will be effective immediately upon posting. If You are dissatisfied with any modification to the Terms, Your only remedy is to terminate Your use of the Sites and/or the Services, as described in Section 10 (Termination and Survivability) of these Terms. Your continued use of the Sites and/or the Services after a change or update has been made to the Terms constitutes Your acceptance of such change or update.”

So what I see here is that they own the rights of everything and they can update the terms without you knowing at will. If you log into the service you just accepted the terms because you’re responsible to check if they changed anything before you log in every single time. It is a fever dream of a one-sided agreement and shows a lack of customer respect.

On their site it shows a bunch of big developers have used their site. I have trouble believing it was anyone with legal authority. The lawyers I know would start Thanos snapping people for someone signing that. I’d buy popcorn and watch.

Oh, and if that company ever reads this. Consider letting people own their generations outright, and all derivatives with a warning that the system might generate identical assets due to another prompt and those assets would be owned by others. Users would agree users cannot sue each other over those generated assets. No, it’s not perfect but it’s better. Once again, none of that matters if you stick with being able to update the terms at will.

There can be small companies with amazing products. Those products might revolutionize the world. At least we hope they change the world in a positive way. I would love to see what they are up to.

Sadly, the company that wrote those terms doesn’t seem to be trying to get customers. They appear to be setting up to get hostages while hoping to create Stockholm Syndrome. The only people who will accept those terms are people that don’t read or people that have nothing to lose. The terms we saw above are just a symptom of a larger problem.

A Craze

I distinctly remember how the Metaverse was going to revolutionize the world. I think the best metaverse we have right now is a cell phone. Single login to a portal of everything you might need to do with a consumer usable identity. So many Metaverse companies sprung up overnight. Next there was the NFT craze. People could get an insane amount of money thrown at them for starting a company to issue something like NFT Water Bottles. That image of a bottle will be great to stare at while you’re stranded in a hot desert. That didn’t matter though. It’s an NFT idea, so let’s go! Here is the seed money! Then the AI wave started.

In the AI surge we see a bit more discernment but once again we have an unhealthy number of money chasers and the seemingly endless supply of buzzword investors.

All of these waves tend to end in a similar way. A bunch of investors have lost money. A new shiny idea is out for people to chase. Previous idea wave experts are now just waiting for people to get excited about the Innerverse or Generative Relationships and start their new company there.

When hype has become a signal flare for a gold rush, those who survive to actually get to the gold are the ones who deliver on the product and build trust with their customers. Terms of use agreements, like the one above, torch trust faster than a jackrabbit on a hot griddle. You need trust. You need a working product.

Your customers are what make you succeed. If you treat them like a KPI proof point that carries risk, you should start working on your VC Innerverse deck today as you have already locked in your company’s demise. Trust isn’t a feature. It’s a foundation.