Association between Player Perception and AI Disclosure on Steam: An Exploratory Study
TL;DR
Analysis of Steam reviews to examine whether games with AI disclosure are associated with different review patterns shows that AI-disclosed games are associated with higher levels of AI-related criticism in negative reviews.
Abstract
The use of generative AI in game development is growing rapidly and is the subject of intense debate in which player reactions play a central role. This paper contributes to this discussion by analyzing Steam reviews to examine whether games with AI disclosure are associated with different review patterns. Using a dataset across multiple disclosure groups, we apply linguistic analysis including keyword-based, word frequency, and characteristic word analysis to investigate the AI-related discussion on Steam. Our results show that AI-disclosed games are associated with higher levels of AI-related criticism in negative reviews. Our findings provide a first exploratory step towards understanding how players perceive AI disclosure.
