NTE Developers forget to remove AI watermark

[u/YourLilyInaPot]

In their newest update 1.3, a new area has been added, along with it came new fishing spots and fishing catches.

One of their fishing assets contains the watermark from Doubao (豆包) a popular Chinese AI chatbot assistant with image and video generation powered by Seedance (Bytedance).

This has sparked heated debate amongst Chinese players, while not hardly criticizing the use of AI they do make fun of the fact that Doubao’s AI image generation watermark comes from the free version of the app, with many comments calling them cheap, criticizing their carelessness and questioning the real reason behind their low production costs.

To quote one of the comments:

“AI is fine, but using Doubao is just funny. The free version no less.”

Other comments talk about AI across the Chinese gaming industry, how other companies such as Hoyoverse and Netease have self-developed AI tools while Hotta Studio uses an AI chatbot assistant.

To put it on perspective, asking Doubao to generate an image is very similar to asking ChatGPT.

Quote from another comment:

“Doubao Doubao, help me generate a game asset of a purple crowned seahorse.”

I’ll add that the Chinese community already knew about the extent of AI usage in Neverness to Everness, though they weren’t expecting to see Doubao of all things.

As of this post, the watermark has been removed with the asset remaining the same otherwise.

[u/ivari]

lmaooo

ai slop is already hated to begin with and they're being so stupid in using it

[u/Dr_Latency345 → u/ivari]

Again, btw

[u/jgabrielferreira → u/ivari]

Hotta is stupid lol. The kind of breaches and bugs that they allowed to go live on ToF confirms that.

[u/shimapanlover → u/ivari]

Have you read the Chinese comments, they are making fun of them having no in house AI like the bigger studios. Unlike us Western who stupidly believe "the game I play doesn't use AI." They know all of them use AI...

[u/Katicflis1 → u/shimapanlover]

Please. Outside of ultimate delulus, we know they all use AI. Just a question of who hides it best.

[u/Typical-Opposite-989 → u/Katicflis1]

In China, they don't judge the use of AI but if it affects their gaming experience, they'll screw you over just like anyone else. NTE, in particular has hundreds of bug complaints in each patch, leading many Chinese players to believe that devs're being used them as a test server for Global. Now, AI is back in the spotlight, making them suspect that AI is being used to program the game code, which is why they have to deal with so many bugs.

[u/OrangeIllustrious499 → u/Typical-Opposite-989]

Which is probably the case since I saw some global NTE fans saying shits like: "This is why Im glad we have a 1 week delay, so devs and chinese players can spot bugs and optimize the game better"

Never have I seen such a fanbase that has people blatantly defends such horrific QC. Let's see how they like that when CN peeps say goodbye to the game due to feeling mistreated and global will have to taste the bugs themselves.

[u/Ravonaa → u/OrangeIllustrious499]

This is assuming they haven't already lmao. From an initial milquetoast reception on CN from the quality, you can definitely see they dislike being treated as open beta testers every single patch. Their banners just don't do well in China - even when mobile is a secondary market, it just doesn't paint a good picture overall.

This recent "main push" being embroiled in a cuckoldry scandal + a myriad of 1.3 launch bugs, CN is just not happy.

[u/jayinsane5050 → u/Ravonaa]

Not even the summer skins save it I guess

[u/Particular_Web3215 → u/Ravonaa]

with the cuckoldry drama, some CN NTE fans started using hoyo characters that got slapped/have traumatic backstory in an attempt to divert attention (promeia. insert Hi3 character, wanderer). or people relentlessly make fun of the bugs and AI generated storylines.

[u/jayinsane5050 → u/Particular_Web3215]

Wtf man .. I doubt even NTE bikini skins cam save this verison -_-

[u/RaiteiXIII → u/jayinsane5050]

but the game doesnt need "saving" tho? lol

[u/Typical-Opposite-989 → u/OrangeIllustrious499]

It's no surprise the game exploded with the "NTR" issue; in my opinion, it was just an excuse. The Chinese community was a pressure cooker about to explode at any moment because of the bugs in every patch.

[u/jayinsane5050 → u/Typical-Opposite-989]

what NTR???

[u/RaiteiXIII → u/OrangeIllustrious499]

>Never have I seen such a fanbase that has people blatantly defends such horrific QC
HAHAHA imagine saying this loudly in a "gacha" game sub LMAO, this is literally all "gacha gaming fanbase" lol

[u/tiger_kittie → u/Typical-Opposite-989]

they don't judge the use of AI but if it affects their gaming experience

As they should. Judging a game because it uses AI is like judging a game for having its artists draw in photoshop instead of painting on canvas lmao.

[u/Particular_Web3215 → u/Katicflis1]

It doesn't help that NTE is under pressure for constant bugs and the recent storyline, so their blatant and unsubtle AI use just becomes another point against them

[u/jayinsane5050 → u/Particular_Web3215]

Oh lord have mercy

[u/Any_Economics_6166 → u/Katicflis1]

NTE has poor quality control over their updates, and this AI watermark just proves it. I don't mind the use of AI in games, but make it high quality and show to players you actually care. NTE doesn't have any of that but yet people like to eat shit

[u/Gotruto → u/Any_Economics_6166]

Shinku being able to infinite sprint by activating her dragon form (which sprints by default) and just using the walk button instead of the run button (so the sprint only uses the stamina that walking does) didn't clue you in that they skimp on QA?

[u/Mihtaren → u/Any_Economics_6166]

I've played all big gacha and so far Hotta has been shown to care a lot about the actual game. Sure, it's rough around the edges but having bad QC does not mean you don't care.

[u/drywallsmasher → u/Mihtaren]

I think you need to play more gachas then dude…

Having bad QC absolutely means they don’t give a shit. This is not their first rodeo showing how little they care either. It’s just that this time they don’t have to fear getting caught with stolen assets anymore LOL

[u/Mihtaren → u/drywallsmasher]

I've played and cleared endgame several times (or ranked high in the case of Hi3rd & PGR) in : Hi3rd/PGR/Genshin/HSR/OG Arknights/Wuwa/Alchemy Stars

And I'm still playing ZZZ, NTE and Endfield.

So I've truly seen what the market was like and what the competition had to offer, extensively so. I disliked TOF and dropped it rather early which made me jump on NTE only a month ago and I've been really pleasantly surprised with the game.

[u/OrangeIllustrious499 → u/Mihtaren]

"We care about you so we arent gonna try to improve ourselves by having better QC to ensure a better experience and product" is how you sound btw. Good QC and just simple inspection is like one of the easiest way to show improvements.

They can show as much as they want but if they dont do anything to fix it, it might as well be empty words. This has been their what? 3rd or 4th time now.

Any other games that do this will be shit on horrendously, idk why NTE defenders defend this kind of cheap and terrible cost cutting measures when the company makes millions.

[u/dearth_of_passion → u/OrangeIllustrious499]

I mean, I care more about the fact that they've added a bunch of cool gameplay modes than the that they used AI to make those modes.

Compare to WuWa which is objectively better "quality" in terms of visual design/writing, but they keep rehashing the same dumb game modes.

Oh boy, another round of shitty Vampire Survivors ripoff, another round of shitty half baked rogue lite mode, another round of boss rush with debuffs. Each of those are modes has been reused at least once, some more than that.

I'd rather have fun jank than polished monotony.

[u/Prince_Tho → u/dearth_of_passion]

Lol the mental gymnastics are insane

[u/Gotruto → u/Prince_Tho]

The mental gymnastics of caring about improved systems and gameplay over...fish icons. Hmmm.

[u/Mihtaren → u/Gotruto]

More like answering people making sweeping statements on the game as a whole

[u/Prince_Tho → u/Gotruto]

Atp nte should just use AI to make the characters. Like just give in. People would eat it up and fight for it.

[u/dearth_of_passion → u/Prince_Tho]

What mental gymnastics?

I think AI slop sucks, I just don't care about it in my games.

It's like eating McDonald's. It's terrible, but sometimes junk food just hits right.

You're acting like gacha games are art and AI is sullying it, when they're all just varying degrees of gambling/slop.

Eat whatever brand of junk food you want, but don't act like your waifu bikini slot machine is better than anyone else's.

[u/New-Decision5632 → u/dearth_of_passion]

It's funny because , illusive realm and virtual crisis of wuwa already mogs any game mode NTE has released except the 999 nights , genuine props for that, i really did enjoy that atleast.I would rather play illusive realm/VC for 3 hours than play jank ,low quality minigames suffering with bugs.(Ofc ,it's my subjective take)

I know it's bad , when I was enjoying more just riding the bike around the city than to playing those low quality jank game modes.

[u/Gotruto → u/New-Decision5632]

I think most people will agree that a lot of the minigames in NTE are pretty low-effort. Hope at some point they stop expanding the roster and instead start improving what they have.

But it's a bit unfair to compare WuWa combat modes that they added over several years to NTE's, like, one Abyss-style endgame mode. I hope they don't add a roguelike to NTE, personally. More stuff like 999 Nights, ideally.

[u/New-Decision5632 → u/Gotruto]

Illusive realm was a 1.3 roguelite event in wuwa , it was already a banger then ,one could say the newer one is just a shadow of the old one ,literally the only other roguelike mode I liked in a gacha apart from Arknight's.

But yeah , I have faith in NTE , they have shown their potential with 999 nights,just hope they put actual effort in other modes as well ,since that alongside skins are the selling point of NTE gameplay.

[u/Mihtaren → u/New-Decision5632]

Wuwa is combat focused and has a surpassingly low amount of actually good combat event though. ive realm is honestly not anything special I have a lot more fun on the matrix. I did like the bike race event on 2 tracks out of the 4, wish they'd do another one.

NTE is an anything goes kind of game and honestly the bidding mini game is original and quite fun too. I haven't been playing NTE for long so I haven't seen a ton of mini games but Hotta seems ready to do just about anything with the game which is fun in its own right.

[u/RaiteiXIII → u/New-Decision5632]

>llusive realm and virtual crisis of wuwa already mogs any game mode NTE
lmao, NTE already mogged wuwa, the only thing wuwa glazer got is "wuwa effect is better REE" the same situation with demon slayer saying demon slayer is masterpiece because of ufotable animation lol

[u/Mihtaren → u/OrangeIllustrious499]

I've played tons of great games that had bad QC, it simply isn't a deal breaker. I'd rather they spend time introducing cool and unique stuff (like characters showing up during boss fights, weird anomalies that make exploration actually engaging, events like 999 and the auction, unique out-of-combat abilities for many characters, new vehicles, minigames, character interactions and so on).

I would complain about lack of QC if the game stagnated because that'd mean they don't spend their ressources on actually improving the game, whether that be by fixing already existing problems or adding good stuff to the game. At the moment, they're focused on the latter, which is fine by me. Complaining about lack of QC is completely logical though, but it's not enough to say that the game is developed without a hint of care because it definitely isn't.

[u/RaiteiXIII → u/Mihtaren]

>I've played all big gacha and so far Hotta has been shown to care a lot about the actual game.
how dare u talking about some sense here? lol, its gacha gaming sub, u dare speaking truth about hotta instead of hating them? lol

[u/jayinsane5050 → u/Katicflis1]

I wa sliek OH FUCKING LORD

[u/babyloniangardens → u/Katicflis1]

does Genshin / HSR / WW / Infinity Nikki also use AI too?

[u/Particular_Web3215 → u/babyloniangardens]

hoyo has started investing on AI project and you can already see it with stuff like the pompom chat bot. But that's what every major CN comapny is racing towards regardless of the industry. it's why AI memes in CN socmed are happily accepted as long as you tag it nicely

All i ask for is that human creatives continue making the story, characters, worldbuilding and lore even if other aspects start dipping into AI.

[u/Katicflis1 → u/babyloniangardens]

I mean hoyo is blatantly using AI for certain features(pompous support) and im sure many artists with these companies use AI tools.

I dont think they necessarily fired people they had on staff but they definitely will move toward 'artists' that can work with AI tools as years go by and perhaps downsize or not replace artists that leave.

[u/OkRuin1905 → u/shimapanlover]

Most game companies, even small ones or ones that outsource, use local generation. And most of those local generative models are from China anyway. So how lazy can you be, and how bad is your QC, to screw up something this basic?

[u/ffloofers → u/shimapanlover]

Tree falls in a forest, I guess. If you can’t tell and oughtn’t be able to tell that AI was used then most people think it’s not a reflection upon your morality if you play it.

Despite that, it’s still supporting AI. It’s fair to say you’re just as guilty whether you know it or not.

[u/SireTonberry- → u/shimapanlover]

AI Usage in game development is genuinely good, most companies are likely doing it and anyone who thinks they arent or thinks any ai immediately means evil is fucking stupid

The questions is how its used. If its for workflow management and prorgramming for which its genuinely great and helps an average developer, and even as an aid in concept creation or for placeholder/background assets that dont matter i dont see the problem. The issue starts when it actually bleeds into final product, especially as an asset that players interact with. It shows the company is cheap and values results over creativity or player experience.

[u/RHS-II3 → u/SireTonberry-]

no btw + keep gen ai out of gaming

[u/Fkthistrashsite → u/shimapanlover]

The most hilarious part for me is that they used doubao; they could have opted for glm, kimi, qwen or deepseek but no... They chose doubao for an enterprise peoject lol

[u/RaynareAmano → u/ivari]

Correction. AI is hated *in the west. CN players absolutely have no issues with AI as long as the quality if good. Like have yall seen the amount of AI generated videos on Bilibili?

[u/ACupOfLatte → u/ivari]

It genuinely isn't that hated. Especially by that community, who defended all the plagiarized art and AI copy renditions of popular posters and stuff when the game first launched.

Asia is already more neutral with AI to begin with, with the only vocal detractor being from the west. So when the EN community is defending it from the start... This whole thing will probably be brushes off pretty quickly.

[u/ThatBoiUnknown → u/ACupOfLatte]

Genuinely isn’t that hated mfs when you bring up the fact that they had to remove it in the first place:

[u/ACupOfLatte → u/ThatBoiUnknown]

They had to remove it, not because it was just AI but because it was complete AI slop lmfao aka placeholders that should never have made it to live. Like the above post OP literally shows people mocking the quality, not the fact that it's made by AI.

[u/ThatBoiUnknown → u/ACupOfLatte]

So why didn't you clarify that in your first message that it was because of slop, especially when the person you were replying to was talking about slop, why backtrack now?

[u/ACupOfLatte → u/ThatBoiUnknown]

Why... do I need to clarify a point made by OP in the post we're talking in right now lol? I'm not backtracking, I'm building off of it.

E.g

OP: This has sparked heated debate amongst Chinese players, while not hardly criticizing the use of AI they do make fun of the fact that Doubao’s AI image generation watermark comes from the free version of the app, with many comments calling them cheap, criticizing their carelessness and questioning the real reason behind their low production costs.

Me: It genuinely isn't that hated- etc

So, I talked about how it wasn't hated by the EN community, bringing up knowledge from launch where a lot of players defended the AI slop at the launch of the game, then expanded on why the EN community defending it matters to the statement I replied to, talking about how AI use is pretty formally accepted in asia and how the west is more loud with anti AI sentiments. Thus, for the EN community of the game not doing it would equate to little to no hatred about AI usage.

I'm a lil confused by your statement ngl, but hopefully my explanation clears up the misunderstanding you seem to be having about what I said.

[u/akuto → u/ThatBoiUnknown]

Not true. Lots of people were disappointed they listened to the mob instead of leaving the AI generated content in game.

[u/ThatBoiUnknown → u/akuto]

Lots of people like AI and lots of people don’t, it’s that simple

[u/AntonioS3 → u/ACupOfLatte]

It's essentially a nothingburger. Twitter loves to whine about it, but that's just a small hardcore minority, 98% of the playerbase just don't care whatsoever and it won't change much.

Actually, it's funny to say that, but Bluesky even has a higher proportion of people who are okay with AI compared to Twitter where you can get dogpiled just for liking AI, even if it's used to navigate across burecraucy things (which is complicated in my country).

[u/ShuricanGG → u/AntonioS3]

some chinese reactions, they also ripping them apart...

[u/Phyllodoce → u/AntonioS3]

It's wasn't first, second or even fifth time PW plagiarized something due to their laziness/stinginess/incompetence

And it isn't your first time defending that https://www.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/x7blrn/comment/inbv94n/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=2&utm_content=share_button

[u/AntonioS3 → u/Phyllodoce]

You actually digged up an old comment? That's genuinely weird of you. Especially since the years after the comment has only strengthened my argument that online sentiment is never in line with how people in real life actually think.

[u/Phyllodoce → u/AntonioS3]

I didn't dig up, I just remembered that you are a funny PW glazer

[u/AntonioS3 → u/Phyllodoce]

Oh cool, so just me saying that people IRL don't care is now considered being a glazer. I didn't know people could have weird grudges like that... otherwise, why would someone pull up a post from years ago?

[u/feelinsqwiddy → u/ivari]

Sadly, not really hated in China. China seems to have welcomed gen AI with open arms. Animations, billboards, etc. Of course, you'll find those that don't like it. For the most part tho, they either don't care or love it. Hotta is mostly being clowned on by them for using the free version of that app

[u/raffirusydi_ → u/ivari]

Except it's not, they barely received any backlash before. Unfortunately, majority part of the world does not care about ai usage

[u/ThatBoiUnknown → u/raffirusydi_]

Ok so why did they remove it before? Big companies can easily ignore clearly minor and “minority” backlash

[u/ScrapPotqto → u/ThatBoiUnknown]

I'm assuming it's due to the backlash being really close after the game's release so they just didn't want to risk losing profit from global players especially since they still didn't have much data on the players' spending.

[u/Dragoncat_3_4 → u/ThatBoiUnknown]

Because controversy at launch is never a good thing. It hampers player acquisition.

[u/raffirusydi_ → u/ThatBoiUnknown]

Never said they ignored backlash before, I'm saying the backlash is small that they only have to pretend they don't use it anymore instead of completely not using it

[u/ThatBoiUnknown → u/raffirusydi_]

I don’t think them pretending to not use it anymore correlates with the amount of backlash they got…

Anyways, I’m not debating about AI, and don’t throw ai defense arguments at me. Just wanted to say I don’t think the backlash was as small as was said.

For AI, I’m just gonna wait until this whole situation finally resolves to whether it either genuinely destroys the world and/or job market or is forgotten, any debates about it in the meantime are pointless in my eyes.

[u/Haemon18 → u/ivari]

ai slop is already hated

CN players are fine with AI, most even recommend it. As for global most people don't care as long as it doesn't look bad.

[u/MorganTheGrandRegent → u/ivari]

It won't do anything to their revenue.