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

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.

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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."

 

[Hussar]

I have a sense of 'the rest of the world exists' and that's where we've quietly tucked away all our 8 year old child labor and called it solved until recently.

Really?

We haven't been combatting child labour constantly for decades? The fact that the number of child labourers has dropped year on year for decades means that we've completely ignored the problem until "recently"?

I mean, yes, being laid off sucks. I will not deny that. But, again, being laid off is a fact of life. And, in most countries, we have worker protections to soften the blow. Unemployment benefits, social networks, nationalized health care. That sort of thing. If your country does not have these things or these things are not sufficient, blaming technology for the problem seems a bit misplaced.

Two hundred years of technology displacing workers. At least. Blaming technology for society not having sufficient safety nets in place and then claiming that we need to curb technology is, IMO, not the right direction to be going.

 

[Yaarel]

Thinking about it, I could see one way AI could have an impact: Helping indecisive and distracted players. If it could give them a tiny tiny menu of options they could just push the button on it could speed up play for some tables.

The AI could analyze the past actions of a character, and write up "favorite" actions, in a monster statblock format. for the go-tos. For times the favorites are less useful, the player can resort to the full character sheet.

 

[Yaarel]

I don't believe him, period. Play with 30-40 people regularly? And he's a a CEO?

I assume Cocks plays D&D regularly, in order to understand the product he is managing. Likely, a pool of people for different game sessions at different times, involves roughly "30-40" people who can be called up, depending on whose available at any given time. Each session probably has between two and seven players.

 

[tetrasodium]

I assume Cocks plays D&D regularly, in order to understand the product he is managing. Likely, a pool of people for different game sessions at different times, involves roughly "30-40" people who can be called up, depending on whose available at any given time. Each session probably has between two and seven players.

How long do you figure that these plY sessions run for and how many people do you figure are in each group? It's tough to mix those numbers in any way that seems to reflect anything approaching normal play sessions while not turning into an all consuming second job that in itself is out of line with anything that might be considered a normal play experience while maintaining the "with 30-40" players metric. At a certain point the experience gained is so far from normal that it is likely edging into a detrimental benchmark.

 

[Yaarel]

How long do you figure that these plY sessions run for and how many people do you figure are in each group? It's tough to mix those numbers in any way that seems to reflect anything approaching normal play sessions while not turning into an all consuming second job that in itself is out of line with anything that might be considered a normal play experience while maintaining the "with 30-40" players metric. At a certain point the experience gained is so far from normal that it is likely edging into a detrimental benchmark.

It is normal.

Not where I am now, but earlier in an other town, I was part of a pool of about 20 D&D players. We took turns DMing, and someone would find inspiration to run a campaign. Sometimes two or three campaigns were running simultaneously, depending on scheduling. Some campaigns were intentionally brief, some were ongoing.

I reckon, for WotC games, the purpose, size, and length of the game sessions vary.

 

[Yaarel]

Come to think of it, DnDBeyond organizing a "pool" of players who can be on call in a particular city, is probably a better way to help D&D players find each other.

 

[tetrasodium]

It is normal.

Not where I am now, but earlier in an other town, I was part of a pool of about 20 D&D players. We took turns DMing, and someone would find inspiration to run a campaign. Sometimes two or three campaigns were running simultaneously, depending on scheduling. Some campaigns were intentionally brief, some were ongoing.

"Play with" and "play near" are two different things entirely.i used to run AL twice a week at a local flgs that had a good 6-8 different 5ish player groups going each night but rarely interacted with most of those dms &even left often interacted with those regular or occasional players. Even when I did interact with them it tended to be more of a casual greeting or idle chatter than the sort of discussion needed to clean an understanding of their personal AI usage on the level described .

 

[Yaarel]

"Play with" and "play near" are two different things entirely.i used to run AL twice a week at a local flgs that had a good 6-8 different 5ish player groups going each night but rarely interacted with most of those dms &even left often interacted with those regular or occasional players. Even when I did interact with them it tended to be more of a casual greeting or idle chatter than the sort of discussion needed to clean an understanding of their personal AI usage on the level described .

In a pool of players, campaigns acquire players from each other. Some players are participating in more than one campaign simultaneously.

An Adventure League game is something different.

Heh, the pool of players is more like polyamory.

 

[Yaarel]

Maybe what makes the pool work is, most of the players are either experienced DMs, or willing to give DMing a shot. So there is fertile ground for various campaigns.

 

[Ancalagon]

I also find it hard to believe, Cocks is probably exaggerating. But it would be cool if it was true wouldn't it? That the CEO of D&D likes the game so much that he finds time to play in 5-6 campaigns simultaneously.

you're kinder than I am. I would put it as "he's lying".