You should never support the scumbags at Hasbro/WOTC if you are into tabletop games
Well to be fair, Hasbro is just a small startup. Of course they need AI to level the playing field with the other mega conglomerate in the board game space.
I’m just really hoping that whatever they intend to use AI for isn’t art. Ideally there is enough backlash to this that they backpedal again for a year or so, but failing that, I do not want to see it touch the art at all.
In my opinion, WotC is an art company. I don’t really see anything better in 2024 D&D 5e to what is expected in Tales of the Valiant 5e or is in Level up Advanced 5e, or for that matter, any RPG really. The only thing they excel on is the money behind them to have an entirely different relationship with artists. And that’s not mentioning Magic the Gathering which needs the art even more.
There aren’t that many avenues for AI in D&D. You can’t really replace the game design due to the fact that AI can’t really problem solve or innovate. It’s already likely used internally by the finance departments etc, hell it’s built into Microsoft programs, it course it is used. It can’t really be sued to make the writing more efficient because the writing of a D&D book is sacred, you can’t change the word prone to lying down for readability for example.
So it’s likely coming for art or WotC are returning to the idea of AI DMs, which is silly and I have no interest in, and I can’t imagine it being anything but a totally adjacent product to D&D.
I can’t wait to see what evil and terrible way I’m proved wrong.
Of course the magic cards arts will be the first thing they will use AI for. I have any doubt.
I actually doubt it. 30% of all of Hasbro’s revenue comes from WotC (I’ve heard higher than 50% before, but a quick Google says 30%). Of that I’ve heard people say as high as 90% of WotC’s income comes from Magic: The Gathering.
Artists are paid a set rate, not commission for their art, but thousands of cards are purchased at very little cost to WotC. It’s a golden goose that is literally keeping Hasbro afloat, they’d be fools to touch the operations of MtG with a 10ft pole, nevermind replace it’s core with AI.
What terrible timing. The customers are increasingly suspicious of anything even labeled AI. Investors are pushing this, but even they are starting to get cold feet. It only makes sense if they can sell it, and they increasingly can’t sell it.
These are the same geniuses who tanked their big Hollywood movie by changing their game license just before the movie came out, right?
Has a 7.2/10 and 91% Tomato score. Profited over 50 million dollars. Hardly a tank
It’s a great movie, the best movie yet to come out under the Dungeons and Dragons name. However:
The film made $93 million domestically, which is not good compared to the $150 million budget. Luckily, its worldwide total was $208.2 million, but with marketing costs, it is likely the film did not break even.
https://movieweb.com/dungeons-and-dragons-sequel-unlikely/
It’s often difficult to identify why a film didn’t perform well, but fan anger over the licensing changes likely contributed, e.g. see: https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-box-office-bomb-reason/
The movie could have been a huge hit instead of just maybe breaking even. Trying to rip off the core fans right before it came out was a dumb idea.
fan anger over the licensing changes likely contributed
I know that is the specific reason why I haven’t seen it and still intend specifically never to.
(Ok, to be fair I was going to end my Hasbro boycott and see it when they backpedaled and did the dual OGL/Creative Commons thing, but then they pulled the MTG Pinkerton bullshit and that made it clear Hasbro had learned less than nothing from the OGL 1.1 blowback.)
Can I just use this opportunity to say that, while I enjoyed the movie, I spent the entire time waiting for the bard to use magic and it never happened? Because that really annoyed me. Don’t call yourself a D&D movie and then have a bard that can’t do magic. But somehow has a lute made of steel.
If every company started jumping off a bridge, would you follow? /s
In all honesty, just because other companies are using AI doesn’t mean you should. Can’t wait for the AI bro bubble to pop and fully deflate.
Isn’t AI pretty much the opposite of why someone would play a tabletop rpg game?
