I understand why. I have no artistic talent, I hate DAZ and many other 3D model creators (and I’m shit at trying to use them), but I do have stories I think would be entertaining to others and that I want to tell. I’m not even total crap at designing them (though I’m not as good as even the better, much less the best, of the game devs making adult games out there).
What’s stopped me from making an asset flip is that I have a pretty clear vision for what I want, and stolen assets can’t match what I actually want. I’d need an artist partner. But “writers” are a dime a dozen because everyone thinks they’re a writer, no matter how shit we actually are at it. Artists who can make decent assets, they’re far less common, and therefore much more expensive.
That’s the same reason we’re going to see a huge rise in AI-generated art games coming up soon. Sure, they can’t copyright any of the art in their game, but who is going to want to steal it anyway? People with no artistic talent and low standards are going to be able to make stuff that makes them go “eh, good enough” and they’ll slap it on whatever half-baked story they’ve made the same way people make asset flips already.
