Not just AI, but other embarrassing things in modern LDW games.
Disclaimer: I don’t mean to start a flame war, but I want to draw attention to this unfortunate problem.

I’ve been looking at y’all’s advertising and stuff and I can quickly tell that you use AI art everywhere, since 2024 or 2023. Now it’s infiltrating into the actual games themselves *cough cough* Virtual Families A New Home. It’s a cool game don’t get me wrong, but the plasticky-looking people on the title screen and those poorly-done cutscene arts that appear during life events are just embarrassing to see. It screams unprofessional and lazy. I like to make fun of them in my free time. There’s plenty of mistakes that are so cringeworthy.

Let’s talk about the ads. I’ve seen ads all over Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok that portray tone-deaf things related to Virtual Villagers. Basically if it looks tribal, it gets slapped onto an ad with the logo. Or, it’s not even the correct type of people - Virtual Villagers is about a mystical tropical island, but I’ve literally seen these being depicted:
Japanese architecture and people in kimonos
An Irish dancer
The Trojan Horse from Greek Mythology
Bad Sims-esque caricatures of Native Americans
Crosses
Elves and dwarves
Anime characters and highschoolers
Animal Crossing Villagers (hello, Nintendo Copyright Strike incoming?!)

That’s just VV. Virtual Families, Fish Tycoon 2 and Cook Off are a whole other can of worms.

I’m sad to see how little you guys care about your intellectual property like that. I’ve read reviews online how you’ve literally offended people of color with the way Virtual Families Cook Off was advertised by darkening the skin color of the family and not even bothering to change the characters’ facial structure or drawing all new characters entirely. I am not qualified to speak on behalf of any group but what I can say is that, if you’re going to advertise your games, do so respectfully. Don’t insult people by using their race or culture to bait them into playing games made without care.

The old art from VV, VF and Virtual Town was cute and majestic and heartfelt, even if it wasn’t always the best. You can tell the artist put their heart and soul into it, and they really mesmerized me when I first played the games. I heard they were even made into actual paintings! But now it’s just lazy, AI-generated soulless junk. I’d rather watch the misleading ads from Gardenscapes or Lily’s Garden. At least they bait you with their ACTUAL CHARACTERS and not fake ones.

I doubt Arthur or any of the original LDW folks would like this very much.

I'm curious what AI you use to make the ads. Is it Midjourney? Dalle?
What about for the videos? It's interesting seeing the different ones that pop up. Even if they're cringey in a way they're funny. In some way they're so bad they're good lol.

Anyone at LDW know? Keegan? MissKathy?

I agree, it's pretty disappointing tbh. It's what turns me off from the new games. I really appreciate the hand-drawn style of the old virtual villagers games, but now when I see all the new games have AI everything, it just gives off a lazy attitude and caring only about money. If you go to their page on the google play store, you can see the game icons close up. The art for the 4 newest games are SO OBVIOUSLY AI.

Not to mention the other changes, like requiring internet connection for all their new games now? We can't just buy and download them anymore? Has LDW embraced the free-to-play style of mobile games now, with ads everywhere and forcing you to pay money to progress? Based on some of those reviews, it seems like it.

Most of the new games were created in partnership with GogiiGames, you can tell because they are listed on the GogiiGames.com website. I wonder if this partnership has something to do with the new art and game style.