There will always be at least one loudmouth who loathes some part of your game, and that person can go kick rocks and/or write their own game. Include portraits if you feel inspired to do so, and if you’re worried about some people hating them, give them the option to turn portraits off.
One thing that character art does, outside of the reading experience, is serve as a great viral marketing tool. It can be hard to describe in words on social media why you love a game, but easy to take a screenshot of a portrait and share it around with an “OMG I love this game!” And good character art can hook new readers who may not have ever played IF before. If you have the budget (and that’s a big if) I think having professional character art can have great return on investment.
I personally am pretty against the use of AI art for multiple reasons but the thing that bothers me the most is that in order to produce art AI is essentially stealing works from actual artists, who aren’t consenting to have their art be used like that.
Don’t get me wrong I understand why AI art can be useful, as it’s a quick and easy way for writers to be able to get a visual picture of their characters and such, but I still think that AI art is just not comparable to the works of actual artists.
I think the best thing to do is either to seek out actual artists or just to opt for no art.
In my opinion, art in a WiP is a different topic than art in a final product, for many reasons.
Within a WiP thread, you can showcase different concept pieces to see how well a particular style is received, or even create buzz by giving “previews” and “glimpses” of particular characters or scenes.
When an author showcases romance interests in WiP threads, I tend to skip them.
Personally, I want my imagination to draw the picture of the character in my mind’s eye based on the author’s writing.
In released CS games, I tend to desire an option to turn them off, again because I want the author’s writing to “speak” to me.
Once I read the released copy, and experience the game, then I like to explore the aesthetic the author chooses to share with their art.
AI art in a WiP is allowed by CoG policy, but disallowed in published games. Because of this fact, I would only show AI art as a concept, to get opinions or see how well an idea is received by my reader audience.
I would want commissioned art pieces to be showcased in my WiP threads asap (spoilered of course).
Speaking of AI art, I dislike when fans share their AI generated fan art within WiP threads, unless they are hidden below a cut or otherwise spoilered.
I would love to have tons of paid for art included in my WiP threads (suitably spoilered) but realistically know that there will be near nil.
I really hate seeing any type of character art in text games. Inevitably it looks nothing like what I was picturing and completely ruins my “mental image” of how I was imagining the game’s look in general. I very much appreciate having options to turn graphics/portraits off, and when a game doesn’t have them I literally scroll past and avert my eyes so I don’t have to see it.
I want to qualify my choice by stating I really prefer no art at all and I tend to gloss over any extensive worldbuilding or character/RO details given in a WIP post (the work should speak for itself). But I’m fine ignoring it when it’s present and I don’t want to engage with it. Commissioned art in a final game I am much more open to (and often there is the option to turn the art off, if I decide I’d rather not see it).
However, seeing AI-generated images in particular really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I prefer with no art in the games because what i picture the characters and the official art is always different and it keeps me disappointed because i can’t unsee it
On the other notes, i enjoy a fanarts and sometimes the official character design is much better than i thought although it’s rare
I honestly have no preference with whether there’s official art in the WIP thread or not. But I wanted to put emphasis on how I loathe AI imagery so I voted for that. As an art lover it makes me upsetti spaghetti to see them so prevalent.
It’s understandable that commissioning artists might not be a viable option, but there are still alternatives! I was absolutely delighted when I came across a WIP post that used Picrew portraits for the character art (with a link to the Picrew and the artist’s Twitter! Triple points!!). And they looked so great and cute! Okay heck I’ll just link the post But yeah I don’t mind either way if there’s art or not, but for the love of art, I hope to see more of that and less of the AI thing.
I like it when the game provides character art. For all the talk about “power of imagination” those characters are creations of the author independent of the player, and so i prefer to get a clear image how their creator envisions them. And a picture is superior medium in this regard.
Awww, thank you! I love that Picrew! I need to update the link. Here’s the new one. I also really like Witch crew here, but I didn’t use it for the post because there wasn’t enough masculine options for Ziya.
For the general topic, I like art of characters, but I understand different strokes for different folks. What I don’t like is AI-generated art, writing, translation, or other creative work. If something uses AI, I won’t play or read it. AI can be used to spark creativity, but as it is right now, AI can’t be made or maintained in accordance with my personal ethics. Again, different strokes for different folks.
I had a whole discussion about AI with my family previously and compiled a bunch of articles. Some are older now, but it all still applies. Feel free to peruse:
I like portraits that are real art, they don’t take me out of the immersion, or in the case of the masquerade games, they enhance it. I guess an official portrait puts a nail in your imagination of a character’s looks, but on the other hand that’s the most accurate realization of that character that the author had in mind.
Using AI is ethically wrong. Period. Every company developing AI art has already stolen millions of images from artists from all over the world and all corners of the internet long before the usage of their AI was released to the public and they keep stealing to this day.
Do I even need to mention the lack of consent from the artists for their works to be used that way? What I will mention, is that the companies developing AI didn’t even bother asking.
Another aspect is that the AI can’t unlearn the art style it has already stolen so even if the company stops stealing it’s already too late for the artist because the AI will just generate new pictures and feed them to itself in perpetuity making the real artist’s style unrecoverable.
AI completely ignores Copyrights that legally protect any form of artists’ expression, with no consequences, and here’s why: artists are poor as hell. Unlike large companies like disney or Sony or whichever who will sue you to oblivion for the most trivial violation of the copyright of their products, artists just can’t afford to defend themselves against such entities making them an easy target.
So AI “art” is no real art and humanity would be better without it
No one is going to question the beneficial aspects of AI in general. I think thats a universal thought.
When it comes to creative such as art, writing, music, etc. There is a detachment, a lack of expression seeing as AI steals art to make its own which i suppose would be its expression & style.
I use AI art on my WIPs because I have no idea what my characters look like so it gives me an idea as Im writing. Then I get rid of it once I have a memory of them. So Im clearly on the side of I dont care either way.
I think AI should ultimately assist in creation not actually create. I believe thats the issue the disagreers have.
Like if there was art that was labeled as AI assisted & not AI art, itd be better & more digestible. Like autocorrect.
I dislike art in these games, because scrolling past them on my tablet is legit annoying and a time waste. They are litterary in the way and stop the story.
Generative/creative AI (I believe that is what it is called) are often trained on other people´s creation. People who have not agreed to and sometimes explicitly do not want AI use their drawing to train. Because of this I think usually AI for anything commercial or intended to be commercial is morally wrong. Also they look soulles as fuck.
if there is a official art for the wip in the wip thread I usually just ignore it.
I think having a art for the char. Helps alot it puts a face for the readers, but I really prefer the no official art cuz it makes me imagine what the characters really are like from scratch their descriptions and personality combined which makes it fun for me when doing some fan arts
Personally, I prefer to have character art for WIPs, as long as the art is of decent quality. I don’t think there is anything wrong with new artists drawing fanarts or practicing with their favorite characters; however, if the art is official art for the game, and for promotional usage, it has to be at least of decent quality where you can make out distinct differences between each character. If it is difficult to procure said art, I’m more than happy; it’s a lot better than having character art even the author may not be satisfied with.
Telling someone to “kick rocks” over a preference is unnecessarily aggressive. It’s not like people who dislike images in text-based games are out there review-bombing anyone that dares to even include concept art in WIP threads.
As someone who was drawn to CoG/HG because of the text-based non-graphical nature, my preference is to have the ability to turn off any in-game art. That’s not me saying it’ll be a dealbreaker or I’m somehow being a “hater”, just give me the option.
That being said, if it’s a WIP progress thread or something, it’s free reign for the author as far as I care.
