He actively misrepresented the campaign and spread misinformation about its goals. I don’t know if he genuinely didn’t understand or if he was too embarrassed to admit to a mistake but he did a lot of damage to the momentum and perception of the whole thing.

It sucks these big creators only now pick up the mantle but it’s better than nothing. There’s still some time left.

I still think the act itself is pretty gross but yeah, the harm is the important part for me - and I don’t mean that just in case of sexual images. It’s also a problem in terms of content created to affect people’s reputation in other ways or influence the sociopolitical situation (something that’s already happening around the world).

The harmful potential of generative AI is on a completely different scale than photoshopped images already mentioned in this thread by others. That doesn’t mean genAI can’t be used in fun and interesting ways but stuff like what’s described in the linked article is a big no no for me.

In my opinion absolutely. Whatever happens in your head stays in your head and doesn’t affect the other person unless you take active steps for that to happen. Images or videos on the other hand can not only be distributed far easier, even accidentally, but also have a way higher chance of affecting people’s lives (how can you disprove you didn’t take nude photos of yourself for example? let alone make people believe it). They can lead to loss of reputation, harassment, bullying and serious mental issues for the victims (trust issues, anxiety, depression, self-harm) - imagination can’t really do that on its own.

Perhaps distribution is the real problem but easy access to tools that can create convincing results quickly and without effort makes said distribution way more probable.

Photoshop requires at least some skill and doesn’t allow for mass production of fakes the way generative AI does. Same problem, different scale.

That’s a fair point but, as you already mentioned, deepfakes are a pretty universal problem unfortunately. The type of misogyny in Japan compared to say US or Europe doesn’t seem to affect that much (if at all). Either way, it’s a terrible practice without sufficient ways to combat it at the moment which makes me pretty worried about how things will evolve in the future - in terms of “content”, affecting lives of victims and laws that will come out of this (some probably made in the worst possible knee-jerk reactionary ways).

There’s still a difference between a piece of clothing that may or may not have been worn by anonymous women and creations using real people without their knowledge or consent. Not trying to defend those vending machines but these aren’t the same in terms of results and potential effects on the victims.

You can try reporting the video but that probably won’t do much (doesn’t mean it’s not worth a try). The best you can do is treat it as free advertisement and hope it’ll encourage people to buy the game if they like it.

Remember that pirated copy does not equal lost sale, especially for an indie title most people won’t even hear about.

Edit: well, the double check by the other user makes this thing pretty sus. Either way, my comment still stands in case this really happens for someone.

Yeah, I’ve seen it after writing this. Thankfully, half of these are for PC native games so I didn’t miss completely at least.

Beside the already mentioned Open Source Game Clones there’s also this list on GitHub.

As for specific titles, I’d like to add:

• Fallout Community Edition and Fallout 2 Community Edition
• VCMI (open-source engine for Heroes of Might and Magic III)
• OpenGOAL (port of Jax and Daxter, second and third game in development)
• OpenGothic (officially only supports Gothic 2 but works with the first game as well)
• Perfect Dark port
• Super Mario 64 Port
• TRX – Tomb Raider I & II: Community Edition

There’s also WipeOut Phantom Edition but this one isn’t open-source so I’ll just leave it here in case someone wants to check out the existing build.

You already played the games, you enjoy them - it is what it is. There’s no point in beating yourself over (not) doing something without knowledge about the circumstances. No one is omnipotent and can avoid supporting every single shitty person out there. Just have fun with what you like and don’t support the guy in the future, that’s the best one can do in such situation in my opinion.

I want to say we all found out he was a piece of shit in the lead up to Ori 2?

Eh, not necessarily? I’m sure there are plenty of people who just play the games and aren’t in the know of any drama going on behind the scenes. Heck, I’m pretty tuned in into what’s going on in the industry and while I remember hearing some of this stuff back in the day most of it faded away since I wasn’t particularly interested in the series.

I think it’s better to remind folks about these situations than assume everyone is familiar with what’s going on.

He had more of similar comments throughout the years so… yeah. He’s also known for poor management and causing toxic work environment to the point Microsoft decided to cut ties with the studio.
Just in case someone thought these are just some out of context or one-time “jokes”/missteps.

Heck, here are some bonus links for good measure:

• Moon Studios Creative Director Thomas Mahler Criticizes Cancel Culture and Media Bias
• Despite its beautiful Ori games, Moon Studios is called an ‘oppressive’ place to work (this one is LONG)