So much slop (rant about The Breach makerworld contest)

MakerWorld
23

And as my third post, I’d like to copy your statement here:

I’ve seen a lot of concerns about blatantly AI-generated models being entered into the contest. As the creator of the contest, I want to reassure everyone that the contest rules already address this:

“Models clearly generated entirely by AI without refinement will not be considered.”

I will personally be selecting all winners, and I can assure you that creativity, effort, and craftsmanship will be rewarded.

We live in a world where AI is becoming more capable every day, and model generation is now accessible to almost everyone. Rather than ignoring that reality, I believe we should embrace it - within reason.

Using AI to generate a base concept and then refining, reworking, and detailing it in software such as Blender is a valid creative workflow. The final result should still reflect skill, thought, and effort from the creator.

However, simply generating a model and uploading it without consideration for scale, printability, paintability, playability and THEME will not be enough. Entries will be judged on the complete package, not just the initial concept.

The goal of this contest is to celebrate creativity and our PASSION for TTRPG! :man_mage:t4:

I hope this post will put your worries to rest.

Embrace your inner nerd and i CANT WAIT TO SEE YOUR MODELS :green_heart:

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25

What is in it for the contest sponsors/creators? Problems can usually be solved by examining the motives of those who benefit from it and refining or constraining the benefit to behaviors you want versus those that are unintended.

I’m wondering if some of this can be prevented by generating a result file at the end of the job that is hashed with the source - tying together 3MF and result file - so that, at very least, to upload you have to have a matched set of these files, maybe even with a build-plate pic or even timelapse) for those printers that have a camera.

It wouldn’t bother me in the least if I could only upload a model to MW with this source-result evidence, maybe seeded with my MakerWorld login.

At the very least, we need the ability to flag non-working models so others can filter them out. Maybe you set a filter on flag count. I don’t want to see anything flagged two or more times, for example.

26

I must say, as the contest owner - and a fellow dungeon master, i’m quiet offended by your post.

The “story” or prolog if you will, is written by me - only me. Is the banner made with AI? sure, because im not a graphic designer and i think it looks quiet nice.

You blatantly saying: “contest description was just a massive piece of AI generated slop”, is untrue and quiet hurtful. I have spend hours creating this contest. From creating the theme, writing all rules, guidelines, rewards, schedule etc. I guess you have read it, unless you also assume that is AI generated.

The description being a massive piece of AI generated slop is in reference to the AI background/side image that dominates and overwhelms the description. Also why you decide to make the description an image and not text is beyond me. It’s very inaccessible and honestly made it very hard for me to discern the contest goals.

I didn’t mean to imply the description was just AI slop, simply that it included a massive piece of it.

As for the rest of your response, that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the people who submit zero effort, AI generated pieces of :poop:. They’re ignoring your requirements and that isn’t a criticism on you so it strikes me as strange to assume it is. And with regards to you personally picking the winners—that’s irrelevant to my point. I was hoping to have a selection of cool D&D models to browse and download for my own use as a DM, but that’s simply not the case. Whatever useful models are there are drowned out by the piles of LLM excrement.

2 Likes
27

I appreciate you clearing it up. Text can be misunderstood and misinterpreted.

The description had to be an image, this was a requirement from Makerworld. I had it as plain text at the start. I believe it had something to do with the length of the text.

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28

In a nutshell: It’s a competition to create AI slop, organised by a creators of AI slop.

No one can hide behind nice-sounding paragraphs to hide this fact.

I don’t have anything against AI in general, but this whole thing has about as much to do with tabletop gaming as McDonald’s has to do with a gourmet restaurant. Surely many people even see it as an insult to equate that with tabletop gaming, because they put so much passion into such hobbies.

A contest like this just reinforces the reputation I mentioned earlier. MakerWorld is definitely a dumping ground. It’s a shame, as there’s a lot of wasted potential.

The survey alongside the contest confirms that 60% disapprove AI in this competition. That’s 60% against and only 20% in favour.

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I have nothing against the competition, it’s none of my business, but this probably doesn’t appeal to tabletop fans - they’ll just laugh and walk away. They usually don’t want junk food.

1 Like
29

Talking in generale here, I didn’t see this contest in particular yet.
But these contest hosted by creators looks to me like cheap ads for who’s big enough to afford it.
Like the Sabre design one, sponsoring a “system” which is literally a series of extruded triangles…

2 Likes
30

Yeah right - for the most part, it’s advertising. Even though there are certainly a few contests where passion plays a role, it often boils down to advertising. Especially from creators who want to sell their licenses. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s also not something to be dismissed out of hand.

I’ll just use the example from this contest organizer:

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That said, I wonder: Why would you buy an AI model licence for $15 from a single creator when you can rent an AI model for the same price? Or even use the software locally for free or MakerLab. I suppose the aim is to attract uninformed customers, though?

In Europe, for example, AI models aren’t eligible for intellectual property protection at all. Licenses like that wouldn’t be valid in Europe; I don’t know how it works in other regions. But that’s a different topic.

31

I am blown away that adults are ranting so much about this. It’s 3D printing for god sake. Anyone think you have lost thousands of dollars over this.:joy: . Seriously, just enjoy your hobby, your passion and don’t make it such a huge topic that makes it bad for others who enjoy it. New people see this and wonder what kind of community they joined. If you don’t like it, just don’t do or participate in it. Simple.

5 Likes
32

I don’t like the laws in my country, I just won’t participate. Seems simple enough.

5 Likes
35

It’s a bit narcissistic that anyone caring about something more than you do care too much. This is a forum, not the UN—people share stuff here that’s a minor annoyance or trivial or a peeve. I posted to have a rant about something that is inconsequential, but still bothersome. I’d rank it up there with wet socks, the last biscuit in the pack being broken, and maybe just below missing garbage collection. You coming in here and trying to tone police is just a bad vibe and makes you look like an ■■■.

Also, there’s a ■■■■■■■ irony in saying “Seriously, just enjoy your hobby, your passion” and then criticising people for being even a little bit passionate.

“New people see this and wonder what kind of community they joined.”

I mean, if they judge the entire community based on post, they’re a muppet. But even so, I think people drawing the conclusion that segments of this community don’t like AI slop is a reasonable one.

“If you don’t like it, just don’t do or participate in it. Simple.”

You do know that expressing your opinions on what you don’t like about something is still a form of participation. Get out of here with your shallow toxic positivity. If you don’t like the discussion, don’t participate it. And certainly don’t engage in name calling.

36

Just ignore it and take a look at their profile. They’ve never posted anything before, yet they’ve jumped right into this specific topic. They haven’t posted any other comments, yet they immediately find a controversial topic. That’s so targeted, nobody does that by accident.

These are secondary accounts that keep popping up either to disrupt discussions or to defend certain users, all while believing that no one will notice. People here often create a second account or reactivate an old one just to validate their own opinion. It’s usually the same person trying to prove themselves right. We see this almost every day.

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37

But what does that chaos Space Marine do, the toreador in classic Warhammer? :joy:

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38

Wait til you realize how many people/organizations are operating multiple themed accounts, that only break the theme to spam contests with more models than the limit allows.

They all use that AI marketing image style, and there are some other things that pop out at you once you start noticing what’s going on.

Oh, and they seem to win contests an awful lot.

39

on serch engines its not more much better…
as soon you try do find something for inspiration… its getting nearly unpossible to feel inspired from all of this that gets thrown on you…

just today i searched for pictures of… artistic wooden objects… or wooden organic krafted pieces… or abstract wooden art… organic designed wood…

it brings up everything… there are some interesting artworks between, but most of it is not real handwork… or it is not realy artistic… its not you know…?? its hard to explain… most of it is just “bad” diy ideas or projects that has nothing to do with real artistic aesthetic wooden objects or forms that gives you this feeling of interesst… but there are lots of humans that realy make interesting wooden art…
but the searchengines make it harder and harder to find them…

10 years ago… i just had to type in lets say “organic wooden object”, go to the pictures and youve realy seeing mostly only this kind of things you are searched for…

today i find more and more ai generated pictures that cant inspire me in any way…
you can turn on or off the ai filter but nothing realy changes… maybe 7 pictures are gone away… and changed out by some more “bad” diy projects that often have nothing to do with wood at all…

and this is something that i realy miss today… this simple and easy searching for real ispiration… from people that are real… and make real artworks…

40

Yeah sure, but when the fairness of a contest is left to the honesty of the accounts creating those, it usually doesn’t take long before things start going ugly…

Like, for example, a group of people could run contests just to boost their visibility and then award the prizes to their friends/accomplices, without even having to spend the prize pool credits.

3 Likes
41

I hadn’t even thought of that – who actually checks that? I think you’ve opened a really ungly can of worms! This is probably happening right this very moment, but how can some prove it? If there’s only one person making the decision, it can always happen. Maybe someone even uses two accounts, just with a friend’s address.

However, Bambu probably doesn’t care - they’ll get the traffic either way.

43

We’re talking about community-hosted contests - specifically, those hosted by a single person like this one - and there are quite a few of them now. Whenever the title contains an @ and a name.

We’re not talking about competitions hosted by Bambu. Although, strictly speaking, community competitions are also kind off “hosted” by Bambu - it’s just that in those cases, only one person choose the winner.

45

The host of the contest did say this though

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47

Even the Wright Brothers started from nowhere? Now we have 600 seater Airplanes. Embrace it and improve it and stop the whinging

48

Strawman, false analogy, and hypocrisy all in one post. Bang up job ole chap.

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