Taking a break before starting Stage 2. I say “break,” but bug reports keep coming in and other tasks pop up, so I’m not completely resting. Still, it definitely feels more relaxing than setting targets and pushing hard, and I think it’s having a positive effect.
Someone left a comment saying they know many male and female voice actors and to contact them if I need voice recording. It was an unfamiliar username, but the profile picture looked somehow familiar.
A few months ago, I created an account on a new social media platform and posted there for a while. Then one day, someone called ‘G’ asked if I used AI for content and whether I’d keep using AI for the final version. Something felt off, so I checked their account – they were going around finding games that used AI and bombing them with negative ratings and comments. I could see them discussing with a few others who seemed to be part of the same group, having spotted AI-used content on my Steam page.
I believe there should be no alienation due to AI, and while I can’t afford recording right now, I was planning to at least record voice acting properly when circumstances allow. So I told them straight – that I’m using AI for in-game billboards, translation, and voice, but I want to record voice properly later when I can afford it.
Then I got an email from someone called ‘I’. It was very aggressive and rude, saying I had the money for voice recording in my previous game, so what billboards am I talking about that require AI. I was furious but held back and marked it as spam. But the username ‘I’ seemed strangely familiar. I don’t know how I have such ability. I looked it up and found it matched a subscriber ID on my YouTube. I checked that subscriber’s channel – the profile picture looked like someone who works in sound. Maybe it’s a small chance they’re not the same person, but it seemed even less likely that someone with the same uncommon name would coincidentally be interested in my barely-known game at the same time.
And then I saw the voice recording comment I mentioned at the beginning. Different username, but same profile picture as the account I suspected was ‘I’ who sent me the harassing email. I don’t know if they’re using a new account to follow me around and comment to see if I’ll actually do recording, or if they think I won’t recognize their name and commented, or if it’s genuinely a coincidence with the email sender.
I wanted to unleash profanity that would make them soil themselves, but considering the less-than-1% chance they might not be the same person, not wanting to escalate things, and needing to focus on fixing feedback and creating the next stage, I gave them a reasonable response.
As I mentioned, I believe we should minimize alienation due to technology. But I also believe we shouldn’t blindly reject technology either. We need to find somewhere in the middle, and I do plan to record voice acting when things get better for me. But seeing people like that makes me hate my own thoughts terribly. I also hate how such thinking might grow into various prejudices because of people like them.