WotC Would you buy WotC products produced or enhanced with AI?

[The Soloist]

If they made an AI D&D Choose Your Own Adventure online interface, I'd certainly try it.

 

[Distracted DM]

I can understand that.

What do you think about WotC using their own archive of text and images?

I imagine part of the animosity is that the tools themselves were originally created via unauthorized use of all those works online.
I guess the next ethical hurdle is WotC's archives of texts and images were made by people- yes, WotC owns them.. would those folk agree with their works being used to train AI to create new products, thus cutting down on the number of folks actually working on new products? Training your replacement without knowing it- your replacement being a cost-cutting machine.
It's not a question of law, cuz yeah WotC owns this stuff... I guess it's a question of ethics, what you agree with.

Mine is a cynical view, but these are all tough things to consider.

 

[Sulicius]

It very much depends on it's nature. Like I am not going to accept a book with either written by AI or with it's art done by AI, basically a book is not something AI related I would get.

Like the most acceptable thing is maybe a random map generator using some tilesets, or something that helps build encounters, but I don't know if it can really even do that.

Yes I should have been more specific. I would say that is a tool, not a product we can buy now. This question is intended for products released as we know them now.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Yes I should have been more specific. I would say that is a tool, not a product we can buy now. This question is intended for products released as we know them now.

Then no, nothing they currently release for D&D is acceptable to use AI in.

 

[Scribe]

Nope.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I would have no interest in purchasing that.

If it was AI using the work of others, I consider that plagiarism.

If it was AI using their own materials, then it feels to me like they are selling reheated leftovers instead of something new.

 

[Art Waring]

Voting No, Never.

I know that this is kind of a casual question that you are asking, but the implications for wotc, should they start openly incorporating generated ai slop into their publications, are not very good.

1. Works created by AI are not valid for copyright: This is a serious concern for any large corporation that makes millions off of licensing (like Larian, BG3) their IP to other companies. If they publisg using Gen-AI, then they will lose their ability to copyright anything they make using the tools, and anyone else could just take it wholesale without consequences. If you have been paying attention (like during the OGL crisis), they are surely not open to the idea of opening their IP into the public domain (which is exactly what techbros are arguing is the case: that the entire internet belongs to nobody and everything is theirs to steal, as they claim "fair use" while blatantly taking anything they want for personal profit).

2. Wotc cannot simply train off of their previous catalog of artwork, because its not entirely theirs. Before the new corporate policies, artists that were working with wotc had much better contracts in terms of what rights they had to their own artwork. The way it works is that if they want to legally use these previous works of art (we are talking about decades of both D&D & MTG), they will have to pay a licensing fee to those artists.

Wotc has already proven that they have little to no respect for artists that work for them, as you can look at the 30th anniversary MTG set to see their motivations (its greed, pure greed). They re-released the entire alpha set as 1000$ dollar proxies, and they didn't pay one red cent to any artists who's works they used.

They have alienated veteran artists of the industry like Donato Giancola by taking their work and distributing it without their permission (just a few months ago). They have also not increased pay for artists in over a decade, and also removed an artists rights to sell the original piece from their contract (which was one primary way for an artist to earn income from their hard work). Pay for freelance artists is simply not enough to earn a living, you need to also sell prints and originals to make ends meet.

Their predatory stance towards artists is what got us here in the first place. But i don't think that is what you want to be addressed here. Never mind the people who work hard to make the games you enjoy, never mind all the artists who barely get by, just consume and don't ask questions?

 

[Charlaquin]

What do you think about WotC using their own archive of text and images?

Not interested. Consumers should not compromise on issues like this, or we end up with situations like the over-monetization problem in the video game industry.

 

[Gecko85]

I can understand that.

What do you think about WotC using their own archive of text and images?

So, if they train AI on their archive of text and images they paid writers and artists to create, meaning they won't have to hire those writers or artists again?

Hard no.

 

[Sulicius]

Voting No, Never.

I know that this is kind of a casual question that you are asking, but the implications for wotc, should they start openly incorporating generated ai slop into their publications, are not very good.

1. Works created by AI are not valid for copyright: This is a serious concern for any large corporation that makes millions off of licensing (like Larian, BG3) their IP to other companies. If they publisg using Gen-AI, then they will lose their ability to copyright anything they make using the tools, and anyone else could just take it wholesale without consequences. If you have been paying attention (like during the OGL crisis), they are surely not open to the idea of opening their IP into the public domain (which is exactly what techbros are arguing is the case: that the entire internet belongs to nobody and everything is theirs to steal, as they claim "fair use" while blatantly taking anything they want for personal profit).

2. Wotc cannot simply train off of their previous catalog of artwork, because its not entirely theirs. Before the new corporate policies, artists that were working with wotc had much better contracts in terms of what rights they had to their own artwork. The way it works is that if they want to legally use these previous works of art (we are talking about decades of both D&D & MTG), they will have to pay a licensing fee to those artists.

Wotc has already proven that they have little to no respect for artists that work for them, as you can look at the 30th anniversary MTG set to see their motivations (its greed, pure greed). They re-released the entire alpha set as 1000$ dollar proxies, and they didn't pay one red cent to any artists who's works they used.

They have alienated veteran artists of the industry like Donato Giancola by taking their work and distributing it without their permission (just a few months ago). They have also not increased pay for artists in over a decade, and also removed an artists rights to sell the original piece from their contract (which was one primary way for an artist to earn income from their hard work). Pay for freelance artists is simply not enough to earn a living, you need to also sell prints and originals to make ends meet.

Their predatory stance towards artists is what got us here in the first place. But i don't think that is what you want to be addressed here. Never mind the people who work hard to make the games you enjoy, never mind all the artists who barely get by, just consume and don't ask questions?

I agree with everything you say, by the way. What I am hoping to prove for myself is that there is too little interest in such WotC products. Why would they use AI this way if most people will stop buying from them?

It might still be cheaper for them, but if even 50% of their consumers won’t buy those products, why bother?

Maybe I am too naive, but it gives me hope if most people won’t buy it.