How Does AI Affect Your Online Shopping?

[The Firebird]

Just like ENworld isn't representative of the RPG industry, neither is this poll. You're better off tracking product sales on something like DTRPG (which is difficult, but maybe track which ones get the bronze ranking and when).

As an example, we have "Four Against Darkness - Expanded Edition" (Ganesha Games), released 12/24/25 and already an Electrum bestseller, and "Contains AI-Generated Content"...

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/550549/four-against-darkness-expanded-edition

VS.

"Level Up: Voidrunner's Codex Full Digital Box Set (A5E)" (ENworld Publishing), released 7/4/24 and has no ranking, so not even a Copper bestseller, and "Human-Created Without AI"...

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/486860/level-up-voidrunner-s-codex-full-digital-box-set-a5e

Both products of course have other avenues of purchase, so it doesn't give the whole picture, but both publishers have been around for a long time with many products to their name.

These are just examples, but there are of course many 'AI' titles that have been around for some time with no rating just as there are many that are not AI generated that also have no rating after many years. Imho it's not about the creation method for most gamers, but what's being made that sells or not. And it seems that sales aren't impacted as much as these kinds of polls indicate on here. Make the same poll on a pro AI platform and you would get the opposite with folks not buying product if it's not specifically made with AI...

The DTRPG page with "Contains AI-Generated Content" filter:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?format=1000035-contains-ai-generated-content&src=fid1000035&page=1

The Terraforming Mars Kickstarter, which made over $2 million amongst criticism of AI use, also comes to mind.

 

[Blue]

Well lets take AI out of it. Say I read about a game in Drivethru. Let's say its a mash up of Cowboys who fall through a time portal and have to fight in the Crusades. I think its a great idea but see the game uses GURPS. I dont want to play GURPS so I homebrew a game using the old WEG Starwars system.

You think in that situation because I used there idea and should compensate them?

Like I can't run a game with Cowboys and the Crusades because someone else thought it up even though the execution isn't what I want.

Thats a crazy strict moral compass.

Yes, when you remove the context you can set up a strawman, thank you for that example.

In the same post you quoted I talked about the ethics of taking creators material for training generative AIs without compensation, against a hypothetical 'IF' person who was willing to use ChatGPT and therefore not concerned about that. The context is particular hypothetical person Morris suggested who would just reproduce what others are selling using AI.

If you'd like a real discussion, I'd be glad to have it. But that requires responding to my comments in context.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I found AI price tracking very helpful for figuring out what Black Friday sales were actually good deals.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

It's more obvious in a body of work than a short paper or small packet. if there are enough signs....

When I ...

... read over 100 pages and when I see formulaic paragraph formats. Same format over and over...
... see overly used exposition structure ("It's not just a dark fantasy world, it is a place to explore defeating of evil..." ) over and over
... see that most every section has a concluding/summary paragraph.
... see that most of its words are concat words "Ashlanders" "Shardbearer" , "Firebreaker".

There are a bunch more too...

...repetition: the same idea repeated with different words.
...repetition: I just read that.
...word bloat. That paragraph could have been a coherent sentence.
...game of "where is waldo" trying to find the point.
...I start skimming the text, which is a red flag for both bad writing, and AI generated writing. (A competent editor is worth every cent.)

..."m" dash and double spaces can be conditional tells. Depends on the genre and age of the author.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

I found AI price tracking very helpful for figuring out what Black Friday sales were actually good deals.

I will be 100% honest, before I was paying attention to any of the responses, I thought this was the actual topic of the thread

Like for real, i had to go back and read the first post over again. I thought they were asking how AI helps review and find and sell games

 

[Morrus]

..."m" dash and double spaces can be conditional tells. Depends on the genre and age of the author.

That’s the one I get attacked for. I use m-dashes all the time. I love them.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

That’s the one I get attacked for. I use m-dashes all the time. I love them.

N-dashes are great! M—dashes are awesome!
And since the AI's have been fed lots of academic awesome...

 

[Reynard]

I will say this: if a company's ads or other marketing uses AI, I won't bother with the product even a little. And that goes far beyond gaming stuff.

 

[LordEntrails]

Besides IF I wanted AI slop, which I don’t, but IF I did, why would I pay somebody else for it? I have access to ChatGPT just like they have.

AI only creates slop?

How so? I've seen my own writing being accused of being AI when it wasn't (not to mention artists being constantly accused of it). I don't think these things are as obvious as some people like to claim, and having been on the receiving end of false accusations of such more than once, I am leery of anybody who claims they can tell.

Oh wait, sometimes AI writes so well that we can't tell the difference between what you, and experienced RPG author writes and AI? So is AI slop or is what you write slop?

I think perhaps too much emotion and not enough consideration before replying? Or is the first response an emotional statement and not a qualitative one?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Overall, I’m less likely to buy a product made and/or advertised with AI. But I’d still want to know details on precisely how it was used before making a final decision.

(And FWIW, even or especially when doing online shopping, looking online for reviews can be enlightening.)