anonrerising | Night of the Nocturne!

as more info on the AI usage, it's extra bad because they specifically advertised the site (in particular on tiktok) as being completely AI free. despite at the time, CJ (the owner) was very well aware that AI was being used in the process, and only admitted to the usage of AI when the playerbase started being loud enough about it recently. they also still have yet to provide updates on the AI art being replaced after only 2-3 NPCs were redone shortly after the initial drama

for those looking for information on the previous site and issues, it was called Lurapets. there are a lot of old dA callout posts and the like. the basic rundown is that CJ was underpaying people, sometimes not paying people, bullying artists into letting the site continue to use their work despite wanting to pull out (for various drama and not being paid related reasons) despite him not actually owning a commercial license for the art.

newest drama is that they introduced gacha to santae. they started selling boxes for premium currency that contain a random cash shop familiar, one of which wasn't released anywhere else at the time. apparently there had been some promise that santae wouldn't have gacha elements, idk where this was stated but a lot of players were quoting as much when posting their issues

Can't help but notice Santae's staff page doesn't exist.

Either some serious turnover rates are an issue, or they realized they hired folks who never should be in a position of power because they're absolute turds with bad reputations and a massive list of people who have refused to deal with them because they're a piece of shit.

https://www.santae.net/staff nah its right here

I get a 500 server error and a broken faq.

oh wow, apparently they made the page only available if you're logged in. i feel this is an even worse look lol

Probably because they know they already look bad with their current staff, wouldn't want folks seeing who they hire before making an account.

I also wanna mention just how horribly they handled the AI situation and how clear it was they were more preoccupied with doing damage control, as someone who was active when it all went down.

The owner was consintently only making statements about the AI debacle on the discord server and not the website itself (until they got pushback from users to do so, as some people did not use the server) due to the negative light it put them under. However, once they realized they were getting a lot more backlash than intended on the server with people rightfully calling them out and having the context of/bringing up previous statements which went against the narrative that was now being presented, staff suspiciously chose to only have the clarification post/AI QnA on the site and NOT on the discord, when many people still didn't have access to the forums (we were still in beta) and thus would just get brushed aside when asking questions/clarifications because they wouldn't be answering questions on the discord anymore. If you wanted to have reassurance and be informed about what staff had to say about it, they made you open a ticket so they could send you a screenshot of the post momentarily before closing it.

Frankly it was a shit show, the back and forth of the owner mooping and babbling about how it was so hard for him and watching people pity him and shower him in praide while he was constantly changing the story was infuriating to see

Apparently there's only one artist working on replacing all 85 AI NPCs which is extra annoying. Not only is that a ton of fucking work but they also can't replace the AI art fast enough to keep up with the event schedule. So Staff is still shoving AI slop into users faces with every news update.

Night of the Nocturne!

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