"They said" it was only placeholder textures. Users reported dialog seemed AI generated. Only the developers know the truth. Either way, enough people were put off by it's inclusion (in any form) that it lost GOTY and probably a lot of sales.

Regarding your "solution", that may well be a good solution. Itch.io could use a similar search filter to only return results that have a `no-gen-ai` label or similar. But unless that sort of label became an actually regulated term, I suspect if (when) the filter effected sales people would start adding it whether it were true or not. Look at how food packaging has all sorts of creative interpretations of "organic" or similar terms.

On that same thought, does the "this contains GMO ingredients" label of foods unfairly impact manufacturers? How hard is it to just responsibly disclose how something is made?

This whole argument is "you know people don't want it, and you don't want to tell people it's there because then they won't buy your thing".

> "They said" it was only placeholder textures. Users reported dialog seemed AI generated. Only the developers know the truth. Either way, enough people were put off by it's inclusion (in any form) that it lost GOTY and probably a lot of sales.

Hence a purity test that can't be passed. Did the dialog seem AI generated, or just stiff? What kind of evidence would be enough? No proof would ever be enough if you don't trust the develop when they say it was placeholder.

> Regarding your "solution"

I am not sure why you feel the need to put scare quotes around this version, but having an "this was made with AI" tag isn't also a "solution". It's literally the same purity test.

> this contains GMO ingredients

I think the comparison to GMOs is an interesting one because that one's a big nothing burger. People just have an irrational fear of GMO because it's not "natural".

It's the same idiocy that leads people to religiously check for nitrites on their cured meat packaging while gladly eating it if it contains celery juice (hint they're using the celery juice for it's natural occurring nitrite).