Some thoughts about whats going on within the LoP community:
please bear with me, im still navigating how I feel about Neowiz looking to hire an ai prompter ( im not even going to bother calling them a "creator" cause creator of wHAT bitch )
i dont know how to feel - my desire to draw is really low right now but i honestly will always prefer to support my fellow artists so you'll see me sharing the hard work and loving art made by others - you'll just have to be patient with ME, specifically, if you look forward to seeing my LoP fanart/comics.
I will be honest, I AM considering just not making any more LoP fanart. Learning there is AI in the actual game, no matter how small and unnoticeable, feels like an insult. But I am also not beyond accepting an apology to the community for the use of it - and the active commitment to not use it going forward for any projects.
Will I have a hard time trusting them? Yeah. Definitely, with how sneaky it feels for them to not declare it's use in the first place. But I would definitely prefer to work on forgiving a company that accepts their faults, admits to the lazy corner cutting tactic, and actively chooses to change and respect the integrity of their properties and actual hired artists.
It frustrates me to no end. I go on and on about my arm injury making it hard for me to draw. I often see the art I produced before and after my injury and it causes me emotional pain to know that there was regression, especially with painting.
When I was initially injured there were periods of time I would cry and wonder what was the point of my existence if I wasn't drawing? I didn't think I would be able to draw again. And I didn't think I would EVER achieve my dream of drawing manga, cause how the hell was I going to draw? making manga is incredibly demanding and I'm here with an arm that hurt after drawing for 10-20 minutes. I was in an incredibly dark place and in that time I found Lies of P and fell in love with it. He is even missing the exact arm that I have constant pain in! There were other more personal reasons that made me love the game. MANY of which contributed to me getting the Terrible, No Good, Bad Ending of the game that I clowned on in my first little comics I made for the fandom. But it held a mirror to my bad habits, parental trauma, and led me down a path of 'damn bitch, I really do need therapy.'
I still feel pain after drawing. It still hurts after just a few hours. There are days I can't draw at all because I woke up in pain. And yet, I still felt that Lies of P was something worth my efforts. It reignited my love of art and pulled me out of that dark place. My arm, despite it still hurting is STRONGER now. Lies of P even pushed me to ACTUALLY making manga. My experience making those baby Carmeo comics helped me to gain confidence to make my one-shot. And yet here I am working through the pain, for NOTHING but the love of the game, and they are looking to cut corners. I'm bitter. I'm disappointed. Heartbroken. But again, I'm not beyond reconciling those feelings if there is a genuine attempt to change. But who knows? Maybe, after everything, I haven't learned a thing. Maybe, I'm just giving Geppetto my heart all over again.
