Remathilis
Legend
I can't wait until monster stat blocks start referencing Thac0 in them...
D&D General Todd Kenreck Let Go from WotC
- Thread starter Eubani
- Start date
These people exiting Wizards of the Coast mean nothing to Dungeons & Dragons. We've seen the same thing happen time and time again (especially after new core book releases)... and if D&D is still as popular and is played as often as it is right now even after layoffs following 2E, 3E, 4E, 5E, etc... these layoffs and exits will not result in anything different. It will still be a popular game... 'Dungeons & Dragons' will still be the genericized name non-gamer people use in place of 'roleplaying game' (just as 'Q-Tip' and 'Dumpster' are used for cotton swabs and waste containers)... and new people will step in to try D&D out in the future at the same time older players might step out to try other games.
There's really nothing to see here.
There's really nothing to see here.
A videogame is being made.
The other videogames that were being made and were canceled are still canceled. Those artists, designers, programmers, and developers are not getting paid because their project was canceled.
Oh, super easy answers, take your pick!
1) They won't tell you. They'll just have the books largely written by AI, send a couple editors through it to chop it into the right shape, then ship it. At least 90% of the customer base won't recognize it's AI.
2) They'll make their own AI. With D&D and Beholders. Which is to say they'll buy a LLM with Generative AI, refine it by running all the Forgotten Realms lore through it 'til it 'Memorizes it', then use it to write books while they lease it out for $10 a month to the populace to 'DM' for everyone.
Remathilis
Legend
I understand that there is a general fear of AI (and with good reason) but I don't think that it's good enough yet to make a Forgotten Realms module, yet alone a campaign supplement. The idea they are firing people now for tech that's still five years from being viable is comical.
Then again, maybe it won't be as bad as it seems. If you ask most people in the RPG community, they love procedurally generated dungeons, the same lore repeated at them in slightly different ways every time a setting is reprinted, etc. Maybe if we can get it to make black and white line art, the fans will eat that up!
(The above paragraph is sarcasm).
I think this is good old herd culling. Get rid of the highest paid staff and use lower paid staff to assume their duties.
Then again, maybe it won't be as bad as it seems. If you ask most people in the RPG community, they love procedurally generated dungeons, the same lore repeated at them in slightly different ways every time a setting is reprinted, etc. Maybe if we can get it to make black and white line art, the fans will eat that up!
(The above paragraph is sarcasm).
I think this is good old herd culling. Get rid of the highest paid staff and use lower paid staff to assume their duties.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Shouldn't you align your game's identity and optics with it's design before publishing a new version of it?
Sacrosanct
Legend
Layoffs are sad, especially when good people get let go, but this is unfortunately correct. Most gamers don't even know, let alone care. Jeff Grub, Jim Lowder, Weis&Hickman, Zeb Cook (arguably one of the best designers of all time), Jean Wellls, Rob Heinsoo, Monte Cook, and many others all have left and the game moves on. Now add Chris and Jeremy to that list.
Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
I am glad I got off that train, and that I have all the official D&D I'll ever use and then some.
People publish novels written by AI after going over it, quickly, for an editing/cleanup pass. And sell them. And make money.
Hell. One won the Atutagawa prize in Japan, which is a prestigious award to get. The novelist used ChatGPT for parts of the book and no one noticed until she announced it, herself.
Over in Tsinghua University in China, a professor just crapped out a whole-cloth ChatGPT book and won a Sci-Fi award with the judges debating whether the writing choices were 'weak' or 'crisply detailed'.
I think you're underestimating where we actually are on LLM producing material.
Except that's not what happens. They hire from outside of the company to replace them.
What in the world does this thread have to do with AI?
Anyway, my guess is that we will meet Todd's replacement soon. They still need video marketing content, and if they are trying to "freshen up" 5E 2024, they probably decided that having the same face from 5E 2014 is not doing them any favors.
Anyway, my guess is that we will meet Todd's replacement soon. They still need video marketing content, and if they are trying to "freshen up" 5E 2024, they probably decided that having the same face from 5E 2014 is not doing them any favors.
