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

Chris Cocks spoke about AI and D&D at a Goldman Sachs event.

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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

Oofta

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I know not having books would cut cost, but I think it will take at least another full generation of Game Designers/Executives to got that far, so I would say 15-20 years

I guess they are watching Foundry's Ember RPG with great interest. That could shift the timeframe one way or the other.

Would not having books cut cost though? The vast majority of work is required for either physical books or an online ruleset. Because of their scale they can get a significantly better deal on the print runs than smaller companies. I think the savings would be pretty minimal and the books can act as an entry point into gaming. I happen to like my e-book reader, but a lot of younger people prefer print. (1)

I used to think that the ideal way to play D&D would be to enter a virtual world and interface with the other players as their PCs. While that was long before VR was a thing, I'm not so sure nowadays. I think for a lot of people the social interaction, being face-to-face with people instead of communicating online (like we do here) adds something, a connection that we instinctively crave.

Or not. The future is hard to predict when it hasn't happened yet.
 

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cbwjm

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Would not having books cut cost though? The vast majority of work is required for either physical books or an online ruleset. Because of their scale they can get a significantly better deal on the print runs than smaller companies. I think the savings would be pretty minimal and the books can act as an entry point into gaming. I happen to like my e-book reader, but a lot of younger people prefer print. (1)

I used to think that the ideal way to play D&D would be to enter a virtual world and interface with the other players as their PCs. While that was long before VR was a thing, I'm not so sure nowadays. I think for a lot of people the social interaction, being face-to-face with people instead of communicating online (like we do here) adds something, a connection that we instinctively crave.

Or not. The future is hard to predict when it hasn't happened yet.
I think the bolded comment is definitely the case for me. I loved online during lockdowns as it still enabled us to play and it was a lot of fun, but after covid, I was playing in an online game a friend was running (it had to be online since some people were in Aus, others in NZ) and after a while I decided to leave the group. I've since started playing in person with some other friends and I find I much prefer it, I feel more engaged in the game than when playing online.
 

The key piece, though, is that when I'm DMing I'm still sitting in the same room as the players, sharing a pot of tea or a case of beer and actually talking to each other in person. This will not change.
When Covid hit we took a quick 2-3 week break and used Roll20 for free... that stretched on and on as the lock down did. 1 player passed away. 1 player had a son. 1 player got a job on the other side of our small state... we picked up one of my OTHER game night players since he didn't need to travel just walk to his computer.

Long and short of it is we can make once every few month meet ups for moives and/or drinks... but I doubt we are ever going back to weekly at my house gaming.
 

Hussar

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I have no problem with people saying they don’t want to play online. That’s fine. What flies up my nose is the condescending superiority that often comes with the claim. For twenty years I’ve been told that I don’t do real gaming and it kinda gets my back up a bit.
 

Oofta

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I have no problem with people saying they don’t want to play online. That’s fine. What flies up my nose is the condescending superiority that often comes with the claim. For twenty years I’ve been told that I don’t do real gaming and it kinda gets my back up a bit.

I get why people play online, and there are certain advantages. Playing in person is just a personal preference and for some people there is less of a connection when playing online. On the other hand if I had made a few different choices in life (stayed on the farm in the middle of pretty much nowhere) I'd be ecstatic that I could play online. Whatever works best for you.
 

Azzy

ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ (He/Him/His)
I have no problem with people saying they don’t want to play online. That’s fine. What flies up my nose is the condescending superiority that often comes with the claim. For twenty years I’ve been told that I don’t do real gaming and it kinda gets my back up a bit.
The people like that are worthy of being on the ignore list.
 

SlyFlourish

SlyFlourish.com
Supporter
Why do you assume that CC wants the game to go online any more than it already is?

They hired a Blizzard executive to take over Wizards of the Coast who replaced a former Amazon / Microsoft executive who worked in digital gaming. The D&D VP (who I think moved somewhere else now) was another former Microsoft digital guy. The new Project Architect job has a "particular focus on innovating our playable content for digital platforms". They also had a "monetization designer" position which, I'm pretty sure, isn't about expanding books.

I don't think its a stretch at all to assume Chris Cocks wants the game to go more online than it is. I bet his shareholders sure expect that to be his goal. How much money do you think they put into the 3D VTT than they did into the core books? How many more people do you think work on the D&D digital side than the physical side? I bet its a lot.

For the record, I don't really care. We have or will have our new D&D core books in physical booky book form. We're likely to have a 5.2 SRD in case we want to take any of those rules and run with them for our own platforms. The new Starter Set slated for late 2025 (!!) will likely be physical. And I have hundreds of physical RPG books I can enjoy for the rest of my life. So they can digital up whatever they want – that's on them.

A thought just occurred to me. In all this nonsense about the 3,700 copies of the PHB being sold, one nugget came out of that about how the core books are no longer carried in big box stores like Walmart and Target. About a year ago, WOTC switched distributors and those distributors don't seem to have the reach the old one did. Clearly WOTC has put a big focus on selling their books and digital books through D&D Beyond, which makes sense since their profit margin is way higher there. But I'd say being willing to pull your books from the two biggest big-box retailers in the US could show a shift towards a push to digital as well.
 

SlyFlourish

SlyFlourish.com
Supporter
As far as playing online is concerned. There's playing online and there's needing D&D tools to do so. You can play online with all physical tools and a phone with some sort of group chat. I had a player who played for years without using any other digital tool than his phone. He didn't have a computer. It worked fine for him.

A wonderful thing about this hobby is how versatile the tools can be. Discord alone can run great games. There are tons of versatile VTTs, some super-simple and some super rich. I'm really glad WOTC decided to support Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, and Roll 20. It gives us all a lot of choice if we want that integrated ruleset. But we don't need that either. We can roll real dice, look up rules in real books, and just talk our way through the game online if we want.
 

Oofta

Legend
Supporter
They hired a Blizzard executive to take over Wizards of the Coast who replaced a former Amazon / Microsoft executive who worked in digital gaming. The D&D VP (who I think moved somewhere else now) was another former Microsoft digital guy. The new Project Architect job has a "particular focus on innovating our playable content for digital platforms". They also had a "monetization designer" position which, I'm pretty sure, isn't about expanding books.

I don't think its a stretch at all to assume Chris Cocks wants the game to go more online than it is. I bet his shareholders sure expect that to be his goal. How much money do you think they put into the 3D VTT than they did into the core books? How many more people do you think work on the D&D digital side than the physical side? I bet its a lot.

For the record, I don't really care. We have or will have our new D&D core books in physical booky book form. We're likely to have a 5.2 SRD in case we want to take any of those rules and run with them for our own platforms. The new Starter Set slated for late 2025 (!!) will likely be physical. And I have hundreds of physical RPG books I can enjoy for the rest of my life. So they can digital up whatever they want – that's on them.

A thought just occurred to me. In all this nonsense about the 3,700 copies of the PHB being sold, one nugget came out of that about how the core books are no longer carried in big box stores like Walmart and Target. About a year ago, WOTC switched distributors and those distributors don't seem to have the reach the old one did. Clearly WOTC has put a big focus on selling their books and digital books through D&D Beyond, which makes sense since their profit margin is way higher there. But I'd say being willing to pull your books from the two biggest big-box retailers in the US could show a shift towards a push to digital as well.

They hired someone who understands online and gaming. They are doing stuff online with DDB, Maps and the new VTT. They hope to develop more video games. A significant portion of the players are currently online so of course they want a slice of that pie. I wouldn't be surprised if they have other potential plans for the VTT either.

That doesn't mean there's going to be a push to "move everyone online".
 


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