- Call of Duty is issuing in-game rewards that may contain AI images.
- Leakers suggest BO6 Zombies voice actors have quit over AI.
- Players have taken to social media to complain about the use of AI in BO6.
As someone who’s been a dedicated fan of Call of Duty since its early days, it’s disheartening to see the recent turn of events with the use of AI in the game. I remember the thrill of unlocking new emblems and loading screens, each one meticulously designed by talented artists, not some machine-generated image with an extra finger or two.
The Season 1 Reloaded holiday special event titled “Merry Mayhem” for Call of Duty is happening now, and it seems some in-game rewards for players, as well as the event banner itself, were created using artificial intelligence. This has led to criticism and disappointment from players towards Activision, the company responsible for this popular game which has been a top seller since its launch in October.
This year’s temporary Merry Mayhem event within Call of Duty coincides with the game’s traditional CODMas festivities. Unlike past years, this event is inspired by Creepmas, filling the game world with ghosts and zombies that spread fear instead of joy during the holiday season. In line with the celebrations, gamers can accumulate XP to unlock an assortment of rewards such as player emblems, calling cards, and backgrounds for their loading screens.
One such loading screen featured Zombie Santa, a recurring Warzone character with a distinct look recognizable by many of Call of Duty’s regulars. This depiction of Zombie Santa was quite different from the Warzone model, however, bolstering mushy green skin and a surprising number of fingers on one hand. Excessive phalanges are a common indicator of the use of AI generation in an image, as the software struggles to accurately depict human hands accurately.
It was noticed that alongside Zombie Santa, other in-game images seemed to have an odd number of digits, such as the image for the ongoing GobbleGum event in Zombies mode showing a hand with more fingers than usual. Similarly, the “Holiday Fear” emblem, which depicts a zombie reindeer wearing a wreath, appears to contain numerous errors that suggest it might have been generated by an AI. Additionally, a weapon decal featuring Zombie Santa and his Zombie reindeer in a sleigh seems to share this peculiar “extra fingers” issue as well.
Some gamers have offered explanations for the extra digits, arguing that the six-fingered Zombie symbolizes the game’s name, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Another theory proposes that what looks like two fingers in a single place is actually just one finger being peeled back, giving an illusion of multiple fingers where there is only one.
While some gamers have tried to defend AI usage, others have been openly critical of Activision’s adoption of the technology. As one Redditor put it, “. . . They are serving us mediocre content so they can fatten the wallets of their high-paid executives a bit more. It’s ludicrous.
Concerns about AI aren’t only felt by players; even the actors involved in the Zombies cast for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 have decided to withdraw from the project. This move might be related to a SAG-AFTRA strike among video game voice actors, which was sanctioned following talks between the union and companies like Activision and Electronic Arts that failed to reach an accord on safeguards concerning generative AI.
To lower game production expenses, developers and publishers have opted to let go of live actors and instead use AI technologies that can mimic voices, often without the actors’ approval. It appears that Treyarch had to find a replacement for the well-known voice actor who portrays SAM in the new Citadelle Des Morts map of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s zombies mode.
It’s quite possible that resolving the voice cast issue could be as straightforward as Microsoft and Activision meeting the requests from the voice actors’ union. Yet, it’s well-known that Microsoft has heavily backed artificial intelligence (AI) with numerous investments in this field. Given their strong support for AI, it seems unlikely that Microsoft and Activision would yield to demands that contradict their investments in this area, despite the public outcry against AI use in gaming.
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2024-12-10 13:09