STALKER7

I live in rainy New England. Winter is less snow and more cold, damp, gray wetness. The kind that seeps into your bones and makes the notion of relocating to Arizona actually attractive.

We complain – especially this time of year – but deal with it. Adapt and make the best of it as best we can. For example, we have rain barrels at my home. Attached to the drain downspouts, they collect the run-off from the roof and store all that water in big, brown plastic containers shaped to resemble real wooden barrels. Better to bolster that rustic, eco-friendly, self-sufficient feeling, I suppose.

The water isn’t drinkable. Left in the barrels for a bit, it turns stagnant. But it’s great for watering the garden and window boxes, and saves $$$ on the water bill. Which is something, given the cost of living these days.

That mode of thinking – complain or adapt – has been on my mind these past few weeks. The release of Scrapjacks has been good. It’s selling well. Better than a lot of my previous titles, which is nice. Since its release earlier this month, I’ve seen dozens of photos of people’s kitbashed crew miniatures, their terrain and floor tiles. All very cool. Very inspiring. I’m grateful.

However, alongside all that energy and creativity, the excitement of new adventure, table time, hobby opportunities, and story potential, is a rash of complaints. Not complaints about the game itself – but my use of digitally generated filler images and graphic accents in the book’s layout. Never mind the dozens of original illustrations commissioned from Conan Momchilov and Andrew Dodor. Critics are stuck on a section divider in a game rule book they haven’t purchased.

Generative Digital Tools

Love it. Loathe it. Generative AI is here. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. Technology has been disrupting labor for centuries. This is the latest example. Complain all you want but you might as well complain about the weather. This is happening.

Yes, there absolutely needs to be firm standards, enforceable guidelines, and realistic boundaries concerning its use, sooner rather than later. Before it’s too late. But that’s a different discussion for a different day.

For this conversation on AI art, the courts have spoken on the issues of copyright and plagiarism. (No, you can’t copyright it. No, it’s not plagiarism.)
Now, the major concern seems to revolve around consent; that these algorithms were trained on people’s work without their permission or reimbursement.

Last time I checked, eight of my titles had been used to train large language models. (Might be more now. Or perhaps someone realized my stuff was NOT a good example.) Either way, I don’t recall anyone asking permission, and to date, I’ve not seem a dime from Microsoft or Meta. Or Grok, or Claude, or ChatGPT….

In my thinking, the bottom line is the bottom line. Reimbursement is the real issue.

A handful of TechBros developed algorithms that mimic the human creative process at great volume and speed, and are making big money from it. Meanwhile, the human artists who process, ruminate, compost, dissect, synthesize their mentors, heroes, predecessors organically, at much slower pace, have a much smaller, slower return on investment.

And that is annoying as hell.

So where does that leave me, practically? Fire up a class action suit? Bitch on the internet? Boycott the perceived quislings and accomplices? Sure, I’m entitled to my opinion and the internet gives me a megaphone. Yes, I have convictions and can vote with my wallet. No argument here. It’s a free country.

Realistically, my only viable options are to complain, like with the weather.

Or adjust and put out rain barrels.

No, it’s not fresh and drinkable. I’d never make coffee with it. Or try to pass it off as Evian. But it’s good for some stuff, does that job well, and saves me money.

At the end of the day, it’s just me here. Scrapjacks, and most of my work, is an independent project with limited budget, time, and resources. I make the games I want, in the way I want. Same with my fiction.

And as with any creative endeavor, I already know not everyone will like what I do – and they won’t shy away from voicing their opinion. Some of it will be valid. Some vapid. That’s just part of the creative landscape, like the weather.

My job is to keep moving forward and do the work with the tools I have.

Thanks. Have an excellent day.