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itch.io Community » General » Game Jams

We panic about AI slop, but we are drowning in an ocean of human slop

A topic by lapinchien created 2 days ago Views: 261 Replies: 22
Viewing posts 1 to 7
lapinchien2 days ago

Everybody loves to panic about AI slop. But let’s be honest for a second: we are infinitely more bombarded, crushed, and suffocated by human slop than by any generative model.

Take Instagram, for instance. Meta has handed everyone a powerhouse of rapid customization tools to churn out optimal "transmedia art." Everyone is a storyteller now. People narrate their lives, their interests, turning themselves into micro-business PR agents and self-proclaimed artists. Everyone strives for originality, but the distribution channels are utterly clogged.

Personally, I follow close to 7,000 people. For the one daily hour I'm willing to spend looking at what others do—commenting, liking, playing the cynical game of public relations, investing precious time in a sort of social autograph-signing expecting a bit of reciprocal attention—I am literally waterboarded with information. I don't share others' work; I only share my own, because I refuse to act as an unvetted prescription machine for things whose sources I don't even know.

And I'll admit it frankly: most of the time, I give maybe a few hundredths of a second of consideration to things people spent ten minutes, months, or years creating.

Sure, there’s more and more AI out there. But globally, it’s a tiny fraction compared to the tidal wave of human slop smashing into my face every day. Everything blends into a grotesque, chaotic soup of improbable crossovers. You can't even tell if someone is sharing their own creation or shilling for someone else's. It's a transmedia nightmare—a totalitarian propaganda machine powered by everyday pocket tools, put right into the hands of ordinary people.

The worst part? I’m starting to enjoy my daily epileptic hit of bulimic micro-fiction consumption, and long-form formats are getting excruciatingly boring. I know, I know: I’m on a slippery slope, and maybe we should just leave storytelling to professional storytellers.

This absolute chaos is precisely why I launched the Transmedia Jam #1.

We've pushed the parameters of Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle and the Attention Economy to absolute, terrifying extremes. Distribution channels are entirely broken, choked out by a divine deluge of human-generated noise where real talent completely drowns.

This jam isn't about letting algorithms take over. It's an invitation for professionals, passionate creators of original narratives, disruption explorers, and architects of singular storyverses to step back, take the reins of a runaway machine, and rethink the future of storytelling. Whether you want to build something new for the occasion or showcase an existing project, we need to talk.

If you want to discuss the future of narrative across disciplines—far beyond the superficial AI panic—come light a fire with us at the Transmedia Jam #1 and share your anticipatory theories.

Let's talk.

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No Time To PlayModerator2 days ago(+4)

So… why do you follow 7K people? That was a choice! Trim down your list!

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lapinchien1 day ago

Spot on—it is a choice, but let’s look at what’s actually driving it!

Following thousands of creators isn't just random scrolling: it's pure prospecting. In 2026, when traditional distribution channels are completely saturated, how else do you get eyes on your work? It’s a reciprocal pact: I check out your stuff, you check out mine. Nobody is really making money out of this anyway—less than 1% of independent creators actually turn a profit, and most of the self-publishing wave is powered by passion, not paychecks. We’re trading attention, not currency.

Honestly, it feels like gold panning. I spend an hour a day swirling the sieve in the mud, shifting through 95% noise, just for that 5% hit of pure, brilliant storyverse nuggets.

Is there a bit of a serotonin addiction to it? Absolutely. It's the gambler's thrill, the hopes of the martingale cycle: just one more swipe, one more hidden gem. And that exact tension between survival-prospecting and narrative addiction is what we're dissecting at the Transmedia Jam #1.

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JReesW3 hours ago(+1)

This is the most LLM response you could've generated

I don't even wanna know how many layers of ironic that is

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lapinchien3 hours ago

The most LLM-like response I hear every day is people repeating 'AI slop' like 80s robots without a single real argument. Now that is the real irony here.

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No Time To PlayModerator moved this topic to Game Jams 2 days ago
No Time To PlayModerator2 days ago(+1)

(moved to the right category)

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lapinchien1 day ago

Thanks for moving the thread to the right spot! For anyone landing here: if you're tired of screaming into the algorithmic void, come build something intentional with us on the Transmedia Jam #1. 🚀

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lapinchien1 day ago

By the way, a quick question for you regarding forum etiquette!

Tomorrow, I’m planning to launch a collective transmedia story co-written by the Itch.io community as an experiment for the jam.

The core premise: we are creating a shared storyverse inside an AI's dreaming cycle about the future of storytelling—and the narrative rules fully embrace the technical quirks of the forum format itself:

  • If users break the narrative continuum in a branch, or edit/delete their posts, it becomes canon as an "AI hallucination" or "memory glitch" for the user who directly replies next.
  • If two people post at the exact same time, it creates a "quantum superposition"—the next writer can't just pick one, they have to synthesize both colliding thoughts into their reply.

Anyone on the forum will be able to jump in and contribute using text, images, or links to external media or mini-games.

Since this will be an open, multi-user interactive fiction thread: would Game Jams be the most appropriate subforum to host it, or would you recommend another section to keep things clean and compliant with community rules?

Curious to hear your thoughts! 🚀

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No Time To PlayModerator1 day ago(+1)

We don’t have a category for forum games, but I suppose it could go in General Discussion.

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lapinchien1 day ago

Thanks a lot for your answer!

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lapinchien2 hours ago

Thanks! I've started the FORUM GAME here : /t/7296279/AI-DREAM

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redonihunter18 hours ago (1 edit) (+2)
we are infinitely more bombarded, crushed, and suffocated by human slop than by any generative model

The ai slop is done by humans too. And then there is that one ai account that has uploaded about 800 projects within 3 months. And that was not an exagarration.

So, nah, I disagree here. The ai slop is worse. It takes a bit more effort to create a game without ai. Sure, people do upload human made slop, a lot. But the ai slop uploaders do this tenfold and with ai agents even hundredfold. 

/games/last-30-days/tag-ai-generated  /games/ai-assisted/last-30-days  is more than half of /games/last-30-days

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redonihunter18 hours ago(+1)

The name of that concept and jam might be misunderstood easily. But that's just my opinion, as I never ever heard that word before.

After reading the jam topic, I thought of this movie  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(2014_film) 

But after reading more, it sounds like an obscure word for multimedia.

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lapinchien14 hours ago

Hey donihunter! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and digging into the topic. I love that you're questioning all this!

However, I think your math might be a bit off on the AI numbers! I actually checked the Itch.io metrics for the last 30 days out of curiosity:

  • Total games released: ~60,700
  • Games tagged AI Assisted: ~1,120

That’s roughly 1.8% of total uploads, nowhere near half! So while AI automated spam accounts definitely exist and are annoying, the vast, overwhelming wave of content flooded onto the platform every single day is still 100% human-made. That’s why I feel human noise is still the main tide we're all swimming against.

As for "transmedia", don't worry, it's not as obscure as it sounds! It simply means storytelling that unfolds across multiple formats at once—like combining a short story, audio, interactive visuals, or game elements into one unified universe where each piece adds something unique.

Since you're asking the right questions about how tools and platforms shape what we create, you'd honestly be a great fit for the jam. Why not jump in and build or test something? Whether it's a small experimental narrative, a hybrid game, or an idea you've been wanting to try out, we'd love to see your take on Humans VS AI!

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Eldwood9 hours ago

60,798 games in the last 30 days. 1,128 tagged AI assisted, definitely AI. 39,963 with no AI disclosure, almost certainly AI for the most part. 19,724 tagged No AI, some of them AI and lying about it. 17 tagged both AI assisted and No AI, all of them lying.

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redonihunter5 hours ago

I consider it obscure since I consider myself fluent in English and I experience media for decades now, and never ever encountered the term transmedia. What you describe sounds like multimedia. Or a multimedial approach to market a franchise - which is quite normal.

What is not done, is making it depend on each other. People do not like that. If you have to read the comics to understand the movies, or rather if you have to read and watch both, but also have to experience the audio play to get the narrative, that's just bad storytelling to my understanding. What sometimes is done is complimentary things. I remember reading a backstory comic for the Portal game. It was only a few pages that would lead up to the start of the game.

It just has no relevance - so making a jam about it is perfetly fine. Just do not expect people to understand it by the term transmedia alone. They might think of the t in lgbt when reading transmedia. There is not even a wikipedia entry for the term. Oh, they do have a redirect to transmedia story telling, but that article has several markings of non relevancy, original research and such things. It seems to be a descriptive phrase and "transmedia" does not carry the meaning all by itself.

Actually, when I think about it, a video game itself might already fulfill the criteria of this "transmedia" thingy. You can show images, show videos, play sounds, show text and even combine it with user input.

As an example, there are these rpg games where you would find ingame books and those would have a story. Elder Scrolls games have this a lot.

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lapinchien5 hours ago

@Eldwood @donihunter

Thanks for the breakdown, both of you! That’s actually a super interesting point about how the platform categorizes AI Assisted vs AI Generated.

Eldwood, what you’re describing is basically the ultimate sign of the times: total erosion of trust. When people start assuming that untagged work is hidden AI, or that "No AI" tags are lies, it shows we’ve reached a point where the noise itself creates paranoia.

And donihunter, fair point on the search parameters! Even if we take the broader AI-assisted metric, it highlights exactly why this debate is so messy: "assisted" covers everything from someone using an LLM to proofread a dialogue line, to full-blown automated asset spam.

But whether the flood is 100% human-made noise or 50% AI-assisted production, the end result for the player is identical: cognitive overload and distribution chokeholds. That’s precisely the core of the problem we're unpacking.

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redonihunter5 hours ago(+1)

Read this thread /t/4309690/generative-ai-disclosure-tagging

There is no "vs." here. And how this is done changed within the last day. And it might change again.

If you want to, you can combine the sub ai filters by copying the url parts.

/games/ai-audio/ai-code/ai-graphics/ai-text/last-30-days That is 10k games.

/games/ai-audio/ai-code/ai-graphics/ai-text That is 22k games.

So almost half of the ai for everything games was uploaded in the last month. This is worrysome.

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lapinchien3 hours ago

Thanks for linking that thread and breaking down the numbers with the sub-filters (ai-audio, ai-code, etc.). It actually maps out the exact reality we're navigating right now: the platform is flooded, and the line between assisted tools, automated workflows, and generated content is a permanent grey area.

That's precisely why a Jam like Humans VS AI matters. Instead of pretending the tools don't exist or getting lost in endless moderation metrics, we invite creators to step into the ring, take control of the medium—whatever they choose to use—and make something with a deliberate, conscious artistic stance.

On a broader note, I honestly think social platforms should take a page out of Itch.io’s Jam model. Right now, algorithms treat content like an endless conveyor belt. What we actually need is a return to curation, editorial lines, and physical print publishing.

Virtual museums and curated Jams act as an open invitation for crowds to gather and dialogue around a curator’s strong conceptual lens. Channeling the debate this way is their real added value: by establishing solid artistic foundations, they provide a grounding starting point from which infinite user perspectives and discussions can naturally diverge.

Generalizing the role of digital curators across creation platforms is the ultimate antidote to both human and AI slop. It shifts us away from algorithmic noise and puts human intention, critical selection, and artistic perspective back at the center. Always appreciate the sharp insights and the debate! 🚀

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lapinchien5 hours ago

@donihunter

On the term "transmedia"—I totally get your point! Language evolves weirdly, and it can definitely sound like academic jargon or get confused with standard multimedia at first glance.

You actually nailed the difference in your own examples:

  • Multimedia is putting text, audio, and video inside a single container (like a standard video game executable or an RPG with in-game books).
  • Transmedia is about expanding a storyverse across different native environments—like the Portal comic you mentioned, or an ARG that uses real-world websites, audio logs, and forum games to build a world where each medium does what it's best at, without forcing people to digest everything to enjoy the core experience.

The goal of the Jam isn't to force people into heavy, frustrating homework where you have to read 10 comics to understand a game. It's about exploring how different media can complement each other intelligently instead of just stacking assets into one overloaded file.

Appreciate you pushing the debate on this! This kind of pushback is exactly what makes these topics worth discussing. 🚀

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lapinchien5 hours ago

In fact, in Latin, multi means "multiple" and trans means "across" or "going through".

Multimedia stacks multiple formats inside one box; transmedia makes the narrative travel across different worlds and spaces.

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redonihunter4 hours ago(+1)

And media from latin means middle in English. So transmedia means through the middle. ;-)

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redonihunter6 hours ago(+1)

Something changed since I wrote that post above.

When I wrote that post, the ai generated had about 30k titles from the 60k titles. But now the suggestion box has ai assisted in it, not ai generated. AI generated was the virtual tag.

But they fumbled it up. Because ai assisted from the suggestion box now leads to ai generated and it will only show games that manually added the ai generated tag. That is why /games/tag-ai-generated only shows 5000 games. That's manual tags. Not the ai disclosure.

Use 

/games/ai-assisted/last-30-days That is 31,803 results of the 60,812 results of  /games/last-30-days

More than half the new games are made with help of ai.

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