Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks Talks AI Usage in D&D [UPDATED!]

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Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks is convinced that the Dungeons & Dragons franchise will support some kind of AI usage in the future. Speaking today at a Goldman Sachs event, Cocks spoke about how AI products could soon support Dungeons & Dragons and other Hasbro brands. Asked about whether AI has the potential to "bend the cost curve" in terms of entertainment development or digital gaming, and how it's being used in the toy and content industries, Cocks said the following:

"Inside of development, we've already been using AI. It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach. We will deploy it significantly and liberally internally as both a knowledge worker aid and as a development aid. I'm probably more excited though about the playful elements of AI. If you look at a typical D&D player....I play with probably 30 or 40 people regularly. There's not a single person who doesn't use AI somehow for either campaign development or character development or story ideas. That's a clear signal that we need to be embracing it. We need to do it carefully, we need to do it responsibly, we need to make sure we pay creators for their work, and we need to make sure we're clear when something is AI-generated. But the themes around using AI to enable user-generated content, using AI to streamline new player introduction, using AI for emergent storytelling, I think you're going to see that not just our hardcore brands like D&D but also multiple of our brands."


Wizards of the Coast representatives has repeatedly said that Dungeons & Dragons is a game made by people for people, as multiple AI controversies has surrounded the brand and its parent company. Wizards updated its freelance contracts to explicitly prohibit use of AI and has pulled down AI-generated artwork that was submitted for Bigby's Presents: Glory of the Giants in 2023 after they learned it was made using AI tools.

A FAQ related to AI specifically notes that "Hasbro has a vast portfolio of 1900+ brands of which Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons are two – two very important, cherished brands. Each brand is going to approach its products differently. What is in the best interest of Trivial Pursuit is likely quite different than that of Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons." This statement acknowledges that Hasbro may use AI for other brands, while also stating that Wizards is trying to keep AI-generated artwork away from the game. However, while Wizards seems to want to keep AI away from D&D and Magic, their parent company's CEO seems to think that AI and D&D aren't naturally opposed.


UPDATE -- Greg Tito, who was WotC's communications director until recently, commented on BlueSky: "I'm deeply mistrustful of AI and don't want people using it anywhere near my D&D campaigns."
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer


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Let's remember there are a lot of CRPGs whose levels are created procedurally, for example Blizzard's saga "Diablo" where the "map" is different in each game.

Here we shouldn't worry about IA creating dungeons procedurally because this is not new at all.

But I don't advice all the work by AI only, but a human should monitor and correct, for example replacing words with synonims to avoid innecesary repetitions.

I guess they want AI to work as DMs for solo mode, for example a player who wants to playtest his new homemade class.
 




Let's remember there are a lot of CRPGs whose levels are created procedurally, for example Blizzard's saga "Diablo" where the "map" is different in each game.

Here we shouldn't worry about IA creating dungeons procedurally because this is not new at all.

But I don't advice all the work by AI only, but a human should monitor and correct, for example replacing words with synonims to avoid innecesary repetitions.

I guess they want AI to work as DMs for solo mode, for example a player who wants to playtest his new homemade class.

A popular game right now, Deep Rock Galactic seems to have a human editor overseeing their procedural engines.

What makes a cave fun?
While a computer brain is great at randomly stitching a cave system together, it’s not so good at deciding what sort of cave is actually fun to play. That’s why we have human brains in charge of that part.

Anders Heindorff Frederiksen, Senior Game Designer at Ghost Ship Games, has been the human brain (and complete human person) designing the cave rooms since Season 03. In his words, he makes the building blocks that feed into the cave generator. He’s the one putting together the cave wireframes like we looked at just above.

As he sees it, there are a few key considerations in making a good cave: traversal, natural wayfinding, and dramatic experience.

A cave should require players to carve out terrain and use their traversal tools to get around, but it shouldn’t feel like a maze. While larger cave systems can get a little labyrinthine, individual rooms should still feel intuitive, with their shapes “funneling” players through to the next exit point. It’s about balance: not so simple that it gets boring, not so complex that it feels punishing. On top of all that, a cave room should just seem cool. That one comes down to gut feeling.

However, Anders can’t guarantee all of this by hand-sculpting it. He’s still got to make design decisions that can withstand random variation from the cave generator.
 

To me it seems like there is a lot of work that AI can do to help behind the scenes at WotC. The suggestions of doing number crunching or cross-referencing data across decades are an excellent use for it. We've made use of that in my own shop, and we have had people who are able to do other and more useful projects. I think that's an excellent use for the technology. Generating my character's backstory? No. Just no.
 

D&D Beyond has all the facts from every edition of the game?
:rolleyes:

So I can ask it what color clothing thri-kreen interact with most often?

Before this stuff could be fed to an AI, it'd first have to be digitized. All text-based queries could be accomplished then with ctrl-F, faster and cheaper than using an AI.

In the process of digitizing, someone would likely go through and tag all the pictures with what appears in them -- so that the expensive AI doesn't run up a bunch of false positives -- and that that point, again, ctrl-F saves the day.

You can make up all sorts of weird edge cases you want -- "it's super-important that our 2028 thri-kreen use the same sort of jewelry as depicted in the pieces of art from 1993 that our art team already has in their offices!" -- but it's almost certainly not a cost-effective idea to purchase and deploy AI for that purpose.

This is an attempt to find a problem for this solution.

AI has many uses. "What color pants do bugs on Athas wear" ain't one of them.
 

Yeah. Getting and digesting old data, sure, cool. Creating new data? Get a human.

Edit: You don't need to get sour because you misunderstood my original statement. No shame in it or need to save face by mocking it now that you understand. <3
 
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I'm a forever DM, but last year one of my players volunteered to run a Twilight 2000 4E game. It lasted 9 months. Great time. He used a lot of AI generated art to introduce characters and locations. It was awesome. Definitely something for me to emulate. So I'm not threatened by what I'm hearing from Cox.
 

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