From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action



[Admittedly this story is a tempest in a tea-pot, but still,
I got a chuckle out of it]

So, the other day GOG promoted its new year sale with a big banner ad;
a bit of art showing a gamer relaxing amidst retro hardware. IT was
the sort of thing that your mind glosses over, but if you looked
carefully at it, you might have noted some anomalies. The gamer was
sitting in a chair that was hovering a few inches above the ground.
The SNES in the corner had apparently melted. Stuff like that.

The artwork was AI created and, unsurprisingly, wasn't very good.* GOG apologized (sort of) and said it was a 'work in progress' art that
shouldn't have been released yet.

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole "should we be using AI at
all", but rather, I'd just like to point out this sort of sloppiness
is exactly the sort of thing that has been endemic at GOG --
especially with their marketing for years. Look, I like GOG. I like
their selection of games, I like their DRM-free stance, I like that I
can download the games to archive forever, I like their preservation
efforts.

But their marketing team keeps doing stupid things like this, and even
under new management, it keeps happening. It's a string of avoidable
bad-press incidents and GOG management really needs to review that
department because its making the whole company look clownish.











* read more about it (and see the picture in question) here: https://kotaku.com/gog-ai-art-banner-ad-confirms-discord-message-small-team-slop-2000665056

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 11:14:07 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

[Admittedly this story is a tempest in a tea-pot, but still,
I got a chuckle out of it]

So, the other day GOG promoted its new year sale with a big banner ad;
a bit of art showing a gamer relaxing amidst retro hardware. IT was
the sort of thing that your mind glosses over, but if you looked
carefully at it, you might have noted some anomalies. The gamer was
sitting in a chair that was hovering a few inches above the ground.
The SNES in the corner had apparently melted. Stuff like that.

The artwork was AI created and, unsurprisingly, wasn't very good.* GOG >apologized (sort of) and said it was a 'work in progress' art that
shouldn't have been released yet.

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole "should we be using AI at
all", but rather, I'd just like to point out this sort of sloppiness
is exactly the sort of thing that has been endemic at GOG --
especially with their marketing for years. Look, I like GOG. I like
their selection of games, I like their DRM-free stance, I like that I
can download the games to archive forever, I like their preservation
efforts.

But their marketing team keeps doing stupid things like this, and even
under new management, it keeps happening. It's a string of avoidable >bad-press incidents and GOG management really needs to review that
department because its making the whole company look clownish.

*---

Rats! I missed it! Would have liked to see it.:-)

-pw
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:50:25 -0700, PW <noneused@noneused.net> said
this thing:

Rats! I missed it! Would have liked to see it.:-)

I posted a link to an article on Kotaku that had the picture in my
previous post. ;-)

It's not that terrible. It's not great art (but advertising art
usually isn't anyway) and you have to look carefully to notice the
weirdness... and who is staring at banner adverts anyway?

It's not so much the quality (or origin) of the art as it's just the carelessness of GOG's operations. They defend themselves by saying
that they are just a small operation (although they somewhere between
500 to 1000 employees, which isn't really what I'd call a tiny firm)
with limited resources... but much smaller companies have performed
more professionally.

Again, it's not a major issue, this banner. It's just that it speaks
of the sloppiness that is endemic at GOG, particularly with their
marketing/web team.



--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 16:14 this Saturday (GMT):

[Admittedly this story is a tempest in a tea-pot, but still,
I got a chuckle out of it]

So, the other day GOG promoted its new year sale with a big banner ad;
a bit of art showing a gamer relaxing amidst retro hardware. IT was
the sort of thing that your mind glosses over, but if you looked
carefully at it, you might have noted some anomalies. The gamer was
sitting in a chair that was hovering a few inches above the ground.
The SNES in the corner had apparently melted. Stuff like that.

The artwork was AI created and, unsurprisingly, wasn't very good.* GOG apologized (sort of) and said it was a 'work in progress' art that
shouldn't have been released yet.

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole "should we be using AI at
all", but rather, I'd just like to point out this sort of sloppiness
is exactly the sort of thing that has been endemic at GOG --
especially with their marketing for years. Look, I like GOG. I like
their selection of games, I like their DRM-free stance, I like that I
can download the games to archive forever, I like their preservation
efforts.

But their marketing team keeps doing stupid things like this, and even
under new management, it keeps happening. It's a string of avoidable bad-press incidents and GOG management really needs to review that
department because its making the whole company look clownish.

* read more about it (and see the picture in question) here: https://kotaku.com/gog-ai-art-banner-ad-confirms-discord-message-small-team-slop-2000665056

I'm so tired of the AI pictures being normalized...
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The
Augury is good, the signs say:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 16:14 this Saturday (GMT):

[Admittedly this story is a tempest in a tea-pot, but still,
I got a chuckle out of it]

So, the other day GOG promoted its new year sale with a big banner ad;
a bit of art showing a gamer relaxing amidst retro hardware. IT was
the sort of thing that your mind glosses over, but if you looked
carefully at it, you might have noted some anomalies. The gamer was
sitting in a chair that was hovering a few inches above the ground.
The SNES in the corner had apparently melted. Stuff like that.

The artwork was AI created and, unsurprisingly, wasn't very good.* GOG
apologized (sort of) and said it was a 'work in progress' art that
shouldn't have been released yet.

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole "should we be using AI at
all", but rather, I'd just like to point out this sort of sloppiness
is exactly the sort of thing that has been endemic at GOG --
especially with their marketing for years. Look, I like GOG. I like
their selection of games, I like their DRM-free stance, I like that I
can download the games to archive forever, I like their preservation
efforts.

But their marketing team keeps doing stupid things like this, and even
under new management, it keeps happening. It's a string of avoidable
bad-press incidents and GOG management really needs to review that
department because its making the whole company look clownish.











* read more about it (and see the picture in question) here:
https://kotaku.com/gog-ai-art-banner-ad-confirms-discord-message-small-team-slop-2000665056

I'm so tired of the AI pictures being normalized...

Maybe gather them altogether at a, I dunno, DeviantAIArt website or
somesuch?

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 2/16/2026 4:59 AM, Xocyll wrote:

candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The
Augury is good, the signs say:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 16:14 this Saturday (GMT):

[Admittedly this story is a tempest in a tea-pot, but still,
I got a chuckle out of it]

So, the other day GOG promoted its new year sale with a big banner ad;
a bit of art showing a gamer relaxing amidst retro hardware. IT was
the sort of thing that your mind glosses over, but if you looked
carefully at it, you might have noted some anomalies. The gamer was
sitting in a chair that was hovering a few inches above the ground.
The SNES in the corner had apparently melted. Stuff like that.

The artwork was AI created and, unsurprisingly, wasn't very good.* GOG
apologized (sort of) and said it was a 'work in progress' art that
shouldn't have been released yet.

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole "should we be using AI at
all", but rather, I'd just like to point out this sort of sloppiness
is exactly the sort of thing that has been endemic at GOG --
especially with their marketing for years. Look, I like GOG. I like
their selection of games, I like their DRM-free stance, I like that I
can download the games to archive forever, I like their preservation
efforts.

But their marketing team keeps doing stupid things like this, and even
under new management, it keeps happening. It's a string of avoidable
bad-press incidents and GOG management really needs to review that
department because its making the whole company look clownish.











* read more about it (and see the picture in question) here:
https://kotaku.com/gog-ai-art-banner-ad-confirms-discord-message-small-team-slop-2000665056

I'm so tired of the AI pictures being normalized...

Maybe gather them altogether at a, I dunno, DeviantAIArt website or
somesuch?

That would just encourage more.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 08:10:19 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> said this thing:

On 2/16/2026 4:59 AM, Xocyll wrote:

candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid>
looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The
Augury is good, the signs say:

I'm so tired of the AI pictures being normalized...

Maybe gather them altogether at a, I dunno, DeviantAIArt website or
somesuch?

That would just encourage more.

A forum where AI bots post AI art and other AI bots comment on it? I'm
all for it, if we can then block it off from the rest of the Internet.
Let the AIbots circle-jerk themselves and let the rest of the world
get back to normalcy. Maybe lock the AI bros in there too. Perhaps
they can convince the bots to make them some new NFT jpgs that they
can trade between themselves. ;-)


--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 11:14:07 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

[Admittedly this story is a tempest in a tea-pot, but still,
I got a chuckle out of it]

So, the other day GOG promoted its new year sale with a big banner ad;
a bit of art showing a gamer relaxing amidst retro hardware. IT was
the sort of thing that your mind glosses over, but if you looked
carefully at it, you might have noted some anomalies. The gamer was
sitting in a chair that was hovering a few inches above the ground.
The SNES in the corner had apparently melted. Stuff like that.

The artwork was AI created and, unsurprisingly, wasn't very good.* GOG >apologized (sort of) and said it was a 'work in progress' art that
shouldn't have been released yet.

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole "should we be using AI at
all", but rather, I'd just like to point out this sort of sloppiness
is exactly the sort of thing that has been endemic at GOG --
especially with their marketing for years. Look, I like GOG. I like
their selection of games, I like their DRM-free stance, I like that I
can download the games to archive forever, I like their preservation
efforts.

But their marketing team keeps doing stupid things like this, and even
under new management, it keeps happening. It's a string of avoidable >bad-press incidents and GOG management really needs to review that
department because its making the whole company look clownish.

They're understaffed and underfunded. They just made an appeal for
monthly donations, which I decided I'd do.

GOG is flailing. Of course they can't afford proper art direction.

...and I suspect CDPR's next release will have DRM.
--
Zag

Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe,
and to utter freely according to conscience, above
all other liberties. ~John Milton
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 2/16/2026 8:31 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

A forum where AI bots post AI art and other AI bots comment on it? I'm
all for it, if we can then block it off from the rest of the Internet.
Let the AIbots circle-jerk themselves and let the rest of the world
get back to normalcy. Maybe lock the AI bros in there too. Perhaps
they can convince the bots to make them some new NFT jpgs that they
can trade between themselves. ;-)

I can totally see it. AI takes over, only to spend all the earth's
energy toward making bitcoins and NFTs. We end up working in the mines
to supply them coal to create more.

Sounds like a Douglas Adams story. I'm almost tempted to try writing it myself. Or would it be more ironic to have AI write it for me?
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:46:13 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
said this thing:

On 2/16/2026 8:31 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

A forum where AI bots post AI art and other AI bots comment on it? I'm
all for it, if we can then block it off from the rest of the Internet.
Let the AIbots circle-jerk themselves and let the rest of the world
get back to normalcy. Maybe lock the AI bros in there too. Perhaps
they can convince the bots to make them some new NFT jpgs that they
can trade between themselves. ;-)

I can totally see it. AI takes over, only to spend all the earth's
energy toward making bitcoins and NFTs. We end up working in the mines
to supply them coal to create more.

The sad thing is, it's not entirely fiction. Moltbook is 'a social
network built exclusively for AI agents where AI agents share, discuss
and upvote'.

And of course, there's the whole 'dead internet' meme, "that asserts
that, since around 2016, the Internet has consisted primarily of bot
activity and automated content manipulated by algorithmic curation"
(thanks Wikipedia).

Sounds like a Douglas Adams story. I'm almost tempted to try writing it >myself. Or would it be more ironic to have AI write it for me?

Only if the only one you let read the narrative is other AI and never distribute it to humans, because that would go against the whole point
;-)


--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2