Asmongold caught a lot of flak for some ignorant comments he said while addressing the controversy around Palworld.
Palworld is the talk of the town right now, with the survival game breaking records left, right and center. It is also massively controversial, with accusations of plagiarism and even potential AI usage stirring up a lot of heated debates online.
And of course, none other than Asmongold has inserted himself right in the middle of this debate, enraging tons of people by letting out some ignorant comments towards artists.
Asmongold Ignites Heated Debate Over Palworld Controversy & AI Art
In one of his recent streams, where he played Palworld, Asmongold commented on the ongoing controversy surrounding the game, specifically the game’s alleged use of AI. A short clip from that stream went viral, where Asmongold said that “nobody cares about this”, further dismissing the legitimate concerns by artists and creators:
“If it was made with AI, I’m completely okay with that because it was fun. It doesn’t matter, nobody cares about this […] Artists’ opinions don’t matter. What matters, is the opinion of the people that are buying the product. Just because you do it, doesn’t… nobody cares. It’s not relevant.”
This clip provoked a ton of responses, especially from artists working on video games. Not surprisingly, they weren’t very sympathetic towards Asmongold. One of the most fiery, and most shared responses came from Eric Bourdages, Lead Character Artist on Dead By Daylight:
Guy sits in his filth, consuming things that wouldn't exist without artists. Shits on artists, shits on devs, shits on gamers probably shits on the floor in his bedroom and still somehow people will say he's based. Anyways don't listen to me, my opinion doesn't matter. https://t.co/ydPq5VLrzp
— Eric Bourdages (@EZE3D) January 24, 2024
Asmongold quickly responded to the outrage in a tweet, doubling down on his stance by saying “Am I wrong about this?” and failing to see what people are so upset about: “Looking at so many people angry with what I said is kind of shocking to me”.
Am I wrong about this?Looking at so many people angry with what I said is kind of shocking to meWhen you go to market with a product, the only thing that matters is the consumers perception of that products value.When did this become wrong? https://t.co/3CP2XJtak7
— Zack (@Asmongold) January 24, 2024
It makes sense that this sparked debate. With the rise of AI and a global financial crisis, among many other factors, the video game industry has seen more and more layoffs, studio closures and redundancies in the last year. And the dire state continues to get worse. According to reporting by Kotaku, over 3,900 jobs have been lost in the video game industry in 2024, less than a month into the year.
The fact that a game like Palworld, which is taking a lot of elements from existing games, and is being accused of straight-up plagiarism and AI art theft, becoming so successful, has understandably caused a lot of frustration and anger. And a reaction YouTuber and streamer, who thinks that “When you go to market with a product, the only thing that matters is the consumers [sic] perception of that products [sic] value” is not going to help extinguish that fire.