Will Ai Artwork Ruin Board Games?

 

Frankly speaking I wasn't surprised that the publishers of Terraforming Mars opted for Ai art and Ai tools for their latest campaign (although admittedly those are quite different things). I don't think they've ever really prioritised great artwork for their games, the first editions of the base game came included with stock photography and even some images of the designers/publishers posing in multiple scenes. The game even became a bit of a laughing stock for its amateurish visuals. 

But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the game, in fact it's been one of my most played and one of the few heavy games I've managed to share with my wife (she actually enjoys it a lot, probably because she always destroys me at it). I love the theme and the core mechanisms, and its probably one of the strongest games to come out in the last 10 years, with a significant impact on the hobby and subsequent hits (.e.g Ark Nova, Earth etc). 

I suppose that's a big reason this use of Ai artwork has been so disappointing (well not so much to the 12k plus backers of the latest campaign as of the writing of this post). This is a big publisher with a lucrative franchise. The first version of the game could be excused for slapdash artwork, but when modern board games are increasingly spectacular looking, often featuring superstar artists,  Terraforming Mars games has lagged behind. 

The publisher also backtracked on a previous commitment not to create any more content for the game, at a point where it was already accused of making a blatant cash grab with successive expansions and spinoffs for the game. I think this might have been more tolerated by the online board game community if they had invested in a new edition of the game that was of a similar standard to other modern games (better art, components and perhaps streamlined gameplay rules). 

But nonetheless the cat is now out of the bag, with many big content creators and board game reviewers declaring they won't be promoting or covering board games that feature Ai artwork. We have seen similar pushback in the past for games with questionable themes, poorly researched cultural representations and even (to a degree) overproduction and excess 'plastic' but this feels different. 

I imagine it's exacerbated by the wider fear, confusion and anger at the rapid deployment and adoption by business of Ai technologies more generally. But beyond that I think it also hits a nerve for a lot of board game hobbyists that cherish the analogue nature of board games. 

Speaking for myself, the hand crafted artwork in modern board games is a key factor in my enjoyment and passion for the hobby. Art breathes life into relatively replicable gameplay mechanisms, a beautiful aesthetic layer to sit above the abstract, mathematical skeleton of the game itself. I love examining the box art, laying out the game board exploring its details, shuffling through the cards and handling the components. 

In a world of ever encroaching digital technology, this analogue, tactile nature of board games is a key draw into the hobby and whenever an aspect of board games move away from this, it's upsetting. You only need to look at the massive pushback against apps in board games to see this. Ai artwork poses multiple challenges to this image of a board game as an analogue artefact. 

Firstly it implies automation, and a lack of uniqueness. Instead of talented designers, artists and illustrators pouring over the details of our board games, the processes will be batched, without the quality control we might imagine board games traditionally include. Beyond that there might be a fear of duplication, instead of artwork uniquely crafted for this game, similar prompts, tapping into the same Ai art platform may generate all too similar art styles. There's also the considering that the time and effort saved by ai artwork, means lower investment in designers and artists. 

These points alone bother me, I want to play board games with inspiring artwork crafted with all the flare, individuality and soul of a human hand. But it would be hard to argue an ethical opposition to these points, many of which mirror the impact of the march of technology in other mediums and industries. However, Ai Artwork has a more nefarious problem. The murky manner in which these ai platforms have trained their models involves scraping images and artwork created by human artists from across the web, and while I can't say to have anything more than a basic understanding of this, the implication that these platforms are generating commercial value on the back of other people's creations, without their express permission is worrying. 

For now, the TM publishers have stuck to their guns on Ai, I suspect many other publishers are using it already or are planning to use it, but the backlash from the biggest influencers in the space will certainly cause pause. Perhaps heroing quality artwork and human craftsmanship will become competitive points of distinction publishers (especially smaller, independent ones) can leverage to make their games standout. 

Of course this goes beyond board games and even artwork, Ai tools have exploded into the world across a range of industries and mediums. Understanding how to regulate and manage this will be a bigger challenge for citizens and governments across the globe. Perhaps insisting creative works that include Ai should be labelled as such is an option, or ensuring that Ai tools are trained on images/creative work with permission or compensation can address these concerns. But if any previous technologies are guide, I suspect it will be a while till any regulations catches up.