Talk about not reading the room right? Party Animals developers Recreate Games recently announced an AI video contest and it went down like a lead balloon.
With all the well reported issues and concerns surrounding AI / Generative AI, you would think it would be an absolute given that announcing an AI contest would be a thoroughly idiotic idea - but apparently not. Someone genuinely thought this was a good enough idea to put online.
In a post on X/Twitter, the official Party Animals account invited people to win a share of $75,000 to "bring your ideas to life with AI".
How did it go? Well, it's now on Mostly Negative for recent user reviews on Steam with 828 negative reviews flowing in since the announcement:
As a result, the developer has somewhat attempted to backtrack on it. Sort of. Well, they're now asking for opinions on what they should do, which includes keeping the AI category:
If I could face-palm any harder I might hurt myself. How do you read the room that badly? And still don't firmly backtrack on it and cancel it. Sometimes the tech and gaming communities end up in a bubble, but you have to be living under the heaviest rock imaginable not to understand there's a lot of negativity flowing towards Generative AI.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Squires-Hand
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can follow me personally on Mastodon [External Link].
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13 comments
That wasn't appropriate. Review bombing a perfectly good game like that over a contest. I wish this anti-ai nonsense would stop.
6 Likes
Dumb shits doing dumb shit things, and they will learn nothing from this because despite the tweet, they do NOT understand.
There's nothing creative about making some generative ai monstrosity vomit up hallucinated tosh they stole real artists work to train their torment nexus machines on. 🤬
There's nothing creative about making some generative ai monstrosity vomit up hallucinated tosh they stole real artists work to train their torment nexus machines on. 🤬
11 Likes
I do not understand how anyone supposedly in the marketing realm can fail to read a room this badly.
I'm almost impressed.
While I don't think review bombs are an appropriate form of protest against non-game issues, I also realize people don't have anything more powerful available to them, so 🤷♂️
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 14 May 2026 at 2:20 pm UTC
I'm almost impressed.
While I don't think review bombs are an appropriate form of protest against non-game issues, I also realize people don't have anything more powerful available to them, so 🤷♂️
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 14 May 2026 at 2:20 pm UTC
7 Likes
Quoting: SirMCJeagerI wish this anti-ai nonsense would stop.That's the thing, really. AI is being forced upon people throughout all aspects of life and that's not how you make something popular. Quite the contrary.
And review bombs work. It's one of the few ways in which consumers can fight back.
I wish all this AI bs would stop because it's the only tech that requires mandatory usage quotas to justify more investments.
Every other unpopular idea/tech that yeilded this level of backlash should have been abandoned by now but we keep pushing it while it's actively being a detriment to society from all the perspectives in which you can analize it (energy use, profits, job loses, copyright infringement, ...).
So, no. People will not let this go because people hate this shit.
16 Likes
To us, AI is Just another tool.So, you don't understand then. Not gonna regurgitate (again), the 20+ reasons why genAI is a curse. It should be obvious by now, but there are still execs out there who love the fact they don't have to pay humans anymore. Fuck 'em.
Quoting: SirMCJeagerThat wasn't appropriate. Review bombing a perfectly good game like that over a contest. I wish this anti-ai nonsense would stop.What do you suggest people do with their anger and frustration at genAI when it's promoted as gleefully and as ignorantly as this?? This is the perfect answer to such total lack of awareness of the negative impacts of genAI. Execs want it, NO-ONE ELSE WANTS IT. But no matter how many capital letters we use, we'll still get dumb takes like an AI competition to promote yet more use of "just another tool".
Just another hammer - small catch, every time you use it, someone dies. But yeah, it's just another tool. Would you use that hammer?
*yes, that's an exaggeration, but it feels like absurd arguments like that are the only way to land the point in the face of tech-bro'ism these days.
15 Likes
Quoting: scainethe 20+ reasons why genAI is a curseI'm still convinced that the only real description for gen AI is that it is a weapon for the ultra wealthy to be used against the rest of the people.
6 Likes
Quoting: SirMCJeager... I wish this anti-ai nonsense would stop.It will when the "ai"-nonsense stops.
11 Likes
GustyGhost 
3 hours ago
Well the marketing team was split between doing either a youth chain smoking competition, public service worker harassment tiktok videos, or flash mob twerking at hospice care centers. But like any good head of marketing, they settled for something where participants could generate buzz while sitting from their couch at home that would maximize drain on society without requiring consumable commodities, going outside, or physical (or even mental) exertion. Real party animals if you ask me.
8 Likes
Kimyrielle 3 hours ago
Quoting: SirMCJeagerThat wasn't appropriate. Review bombing a perfectly good game like that over a contest. I wish this anti-ai nonsense would stop.Right?
It's perfectly fine to be against AI. But these people behave like a vicious lynch mob who go after anyone who disagrees with them. I lost respect for the anti-AI crowd a while ago, when vitriol and hate took the place of logic and reason.
1 Likes
PlayingOnLinuxphone 3 hours ago
The environmental impact of events which leading to a huge amount of people using LLM in an excessive way. Who is taking the responsibility of this? Are they even aware how much power it would require in additional, just to create the slop-content of this event? If they had to pay all of this, their 75k$ would not be enough to pay the bills.
Last edited by PlayingOnLinuxphone on 14 May 2026 at 3:51 pm UTC
Last edited by PlayingOnLinuxphone on 14 May 2026 at 3:51 pm UTC
7 Likes
Mountain Man 2 hours ago
AI controversy aside, I hate the trend of using reviews for general protests instead of, you know, actually reviewing a product.
0 Likes
Quoting: KimyrielleSo they should just be silently against genAI? Perfectly fine to protest it in silence... we can't upset the people pushing the genAI agenda, right?Quoting: SirMCJeagerThat wasn't appropriate. Review bombing a perfectly good game like that over a contest. I wish this anti-ai nonsense would stop.Right?
It's perfectly fine to be against AI. But these people behave like a vicious lynch mob who go after anyone who disagrees with them. I lost respect for the anti-AI crowd a while ago, when vitriol and hate took the place of logic and reason.
Seriously though - I have no idea what they expected here. The masses had one route to voice their displeasure at this shitty technology, and they took it.
The review bomb would probably go away if they had apologised and backed actual creatives. But it probably won't go away now, because they didn't.
1 Likes
Quoting: KimyrielleIt's perfectly fine to be against AI. But these people behave like a vicious lynch mob who go after anyone who disagrees with them. I lost respect for the anti-AI crowd a while ago, when vitriol and hate took the place of logic and reason.And who or what is being lynched so viciously by this supposed mob? A corporation's bottom line? A CEO's quarterly bonus? They've made tens of millions with the game already, they'll be fine.
Try using less emotional language if you want to accuse others of abandoning logic and reason. Until then, I find it very difficult to respect your hot take.
3 Likes
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