Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Players Fed Up with Activision's 'AI Slop' Artwork

Who else but Activision?

It’s here, there, and everywhere. Let the slop-slinging begin.

Activision rakes in money in the billions every year and can't pay an artist to design some concept art.

Honestly, this doesn't surprise me one bit.

AI always seems to be clueless, about how many fingers humans have 😂

@Steel76

Doctor to concussed AI: “How many fingers am I holding up?”

"This is unacceptable at this point". Then proceeds to buy another COD next year. Business-wise, why would Activision give a damn if people will keep buying COD?

Maybe the guy who did the grand theft auto 4 cover finally got some more work.

Activision has been run by a bunch of cold, heartless robots for years. Now they are trying to do the human work as well.

@s22222 I never got into CoD besides playing with my friends when I ran a game crazy. That was when MW came out. I always liked to shoot demons and monsters more, but we played a hell of a lot of that game, locally. It's morphed into something I don't want any part of, but I admit I do get a little wistful of those days when I see one of my friends playing the newest CoD.
I get it from the standpoint of playing whatever your friends are playing.

This is embarrassing but using slop is also embarrassing lol. I swear the internet is trying to make this word happen. On resetera some users will refer to Triple A games has slop to try to sound sophisticated or above those type of games but instead they just come off as tools. I really hope this quickly passes because it annoys me almost as much as seeing 30 and 40 year olds trying to use young people slang in threads which is just embarrassing

To be fair... er... nah... this is kinda pretty low. It's hard to justify why one of the most profitable companies on Earth (Micro$oft) who owns one of the most profitable game-devs (A₿K) is so cheap, they can't even employ actual artists to come up with their promotional art. This is just crazy.

Pay artists for art.

All the billions they are raking in yet can't afford to get a real person to make some quick art 😂

@BushSwan Seven, but two of them are fused together, and there’s an eighth finger just floating next the others not even attached.

Yet those same addicted marks continue to hand over there money for this garbage.....

The entire scheme is slop, year after year. Yet the flies always flock back to each new steaming pile...

@KundaliniRising333 exactly. idk why there’s even a complaint about this

Is the real issue here that they are using AI generated 'art' that looks terrible - or that said 'art' is doing somebody out of a job?
Because if it's just the former, I really can't understand why anyone would care.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Given that Microsoft is one of multiple company that has the biggest to gain from the use of AI… It not surprising that their subsidiaries would push use of AI over paying an actual artist.

They have the money to pay real artists yet choose to do this. They won’t get my money.

Unfortunately, there are too many people willing to feed off the garbage these mega corps throw at them so it won’t have an impact.

@Gunnerzaurus I think that's a little simplistic... you know that a LOT of digital artists voluntarily use ML-based software. It's easy to say, "no AI"... but a lot of those artists you're referring to now use (willingly) AI based solutions to make their job easier.

The issue is - how does the industry take performance/productivity gains into account, without just laying people off. In that case, there's little reason to improve toolsets, if it means firing artists. So there needs to be a mature debate about it.

I really don't care or see an issue with using AI or these 'disposable' pieces of 'art' not being created by Humans. Its not something that is being sold or generating income - its just some in-game art for a limited time event that will be 'gone' in a few weeks.

AI replacing 'artists', that includes Actors/voice work too, is no different from Computers and Robots replacing many labourers and 'skilled' workers. Its just the evolution of 'tools' made by Humans to be 'more' efficient, more productive and/or reduce their overall costs. AI can produce work in minutes, if not faster yet an Artist may take weeks or months to paint something similar. AI can do voicework without needing to hire a recording studio and hiring someone to read lines written for them into a Mic saving time and money - money better spent on Bug fixing, Server upgrades etc and STILL bringing MORE Events, Content etc to the people that consume that content rapidly.

Half the problem with Live Service is that it needs a consistent and high turnover of Content to keep those that are playing satiated. A lot of these are 'Free' Events every couple of weeks and each needs 'Artwork' - all giving away 'free' content to EVERYONE, not selling the Art or the Content so does it matter if AI created it?

The AI boogeeyman strikes again.
Its just a promo piece that will be used once and never again, AI exists exactly for that, otherwise they would need to spend around 50k just for that piece to be ready.

The sloppy part is to use it like that, would take some minutes in Photoshop to fix that and it would look so much better.

@dark_knightmare2

I really hope this quickly passes because it annoys me almost as much as seeing 30 and 40 year olds trying to use young people slang in threads which is just embarrassing

This comment is totes based.

@BAMozzy so the issue is - is AI a tool for artists, or a means to replace the artist? There's a lot of ethical (and legal) issues surrounding AI in terms of what it's being trained on... but avoiding that hornets nest, there's the basic thing of 'who reviewed this AI art?' If the answer is no one, then that's literal slop... if it's generated by an artist using AI-based prompts to quickly generate a base image, and they touch it up to make it professional, then that seems reasonable. I can't imagine any artist looking at the 6-fingered zombie-Santa and thinking, "that seems good enough".

The same argument could be used for just about any art in any game - if you pushed it hard enough. I think no one is saying AI shouldn't be used, just do so responsibly.

CoD players in 2024 (almost 2025) deserve everything they get.

Most companies will probably do a lot more AI generated laziness. Pretty sad.

@Markatron84 thanks for ruining my day 😆

No point getting upset about it it's probs the future n not going away🤣 doesn't affect the game anyway 🙄

@dark_knightmare2 I aim to please.

Yes the fingers look silly, but AI in general seems to be creating a whole new generation of luddites, which is frankly embarrassing.

The weird hatred for it is irrational and really isn't a good look.

As others have said, this'll all be forgotten in a few years and the few who rage against anything AI will look even more odd.

Change is hard for some. I welcome ai. I think it's art is better than most humans art.

@LikelySatan Game Crazy.... damn that brings me back. Had one less than a mile from my house and was there all the time. Me and some of the managers there are still friends on PSN. Wish it was still around it was so much better than Gamestop.

@Vega37 they just lost all identity. We used to have this really edgelordy loyalty program called "ThE AsYLuM!" It was connected to Hollywood Video, who also lost their identity. Sad times. We went from this laser focused rewards program for akshul nerds to them getting on our backs for not selling enough Entertainment Weekly subs to said akshul nerds. It was damned good for a while though.

@Deadlyblack people be greedy as ***** make the most profit at the cost of everything else including people and quality

@Gunnerzaurus yes - jump onto any dev site or channel... most dev tools now come with in-built AI toolsets. AI tools have been standard with even basic Adobe products for years (they just haven't been trying to market them as visibly). Hell, even basic dev suites for coding come with a crap-tonne of AI code generators for actual code development. This isn't something is necessarily being done to creatives/coders... they are actively using it themselves.

As I said, the issue isn't that this is replacing people, it's that companies are making productivity adjustments to their workforce that is the issue. It's a complicated situation - at the end of the day, if a company can produce X using Y fewer people, then of course they will consider adjusting how many people they need... but I don't know too many developers that would intentionally make their creative process harder just to justify the same number of staff work on the same thing.

I'm not advocating for downsizing, I'm just saying that companies will always seek to reduce their over-heads. The challenge is to show they can add to their revenue by making better use of those Y developers > how to use the staff they have in more creative ways with the newer tools that are coming online.

Edit - also, regarding your conversation with @themightyant ... I think before you start attacking people for having informed decisions and suggesting you have a better understanding, you might want to hold those thoughts. Just in case...

@themightyant well said... it's like asking people to go back to using typewriters to ensure that people don't get too productive. I am sure the majority of devs are over the moon that they reduce some of the time-consuming (thankless) tasks... so I imagine this is really a question for the dev community to ponder how to make the most of it, while still nurturing the industry and making development an enticing career option.

Though I do think personally, there always needs to be editorial control with any AI assisted tools/dev pipeline. The extra fingers could be touched up with any number of AI-assist tools in no-time. AI is best used to reduce burden not replace supervision or quality control.

Frightening how some users here gladly accept getting fed with low-effort and low-quality in their games.

Came here to say it doesnt matter, people will still buy in to this sh*t. Seems im 49 comments too late.

@themightyant we are wholly and completely on the same page... as I wrote somewhere above, it's like thinking people will return to type-writers in order to protect their jobs... but make their life hell. People need to be flexible, and look for new opportunities to create value. Rather than just shaking fist angrily at the sky.

But that responsibility works both ways - from the workers and the employers. That's why it's a sometimes uncomfortable issue, because people approach things from different perspectives (as they do in all life).

Santa Claus aka Satan's Claws.

In the spirit of Activision, I have used AI to generate my comment below:

While it's interesting to see Activision embracing AI for marketing, it raises some important questions about creativity and authenticity. AI can streamline production, but can it truly capture the spirit and unique storytelling that fans expect from a brand like Call of Duty? It’ll be interesting to see if AI-generated materials resonate with audiences or feel more like a soulless cash grab.