The new AP News Story is here. Good grief. You know something is wrong when it makes national headlines. (Again.) https://apnews.com/article/dungeons-dragons-ai-artificial-intelligence-dnd-wizards-of-coast-hasbro-b852a2b4bcadcf52ea80275fb7a6d3b1
Full disclosure up front: I won’t be buying this book. I will, however, be looking for a copy to read and review. I’m not blessed with any kind of ongoing relationship with Wizards of the Coast, and they won’t even return a lousy email from me. (Honestly, it’s disappointing.)
If you want to buy it, hey that’s cool. That’s up to you, right? Buy it. Use it in your group. Cool.
Why are all of these pesky writers and actors on strike in Hollywood?
Much like the wild and wacky 1980s, people are for real afraid machines are going to take their jobs. Only instead of robot arms in factories, we’re freaking out about all of the creative jobs going to the machines. WAG and SAG/AFTRA have recognized this threat and it’s a big part of the ongoing strikes.
Hey, WotC- How do you think those auto workers felt in the 80s? How do you think writers and actors feel about it now? Finally, How do you think YOUR writers and artists feel about it now? I get that some of your staff says “Yes” (and probably lick your shoes) to whatever the corporate overlords say to them regardless of how dumb it sounds.
Get afraid. Some of us who don’t bring in the big five and six digit salaries know how to think for ourselves. I might not have 80K followers on Instagram and another 500K on YouTube or a closet full of costumes and elf ears, but I can form a coherent opinion all by myself. Some of us see what WotC is doing, and we just plain don’t like it. Period. And YOU, WotC, need to freakin do better!
Editing and why it might be important.
Wizards of the Coast made the mistake of telling us they had this thing in front of them for TWO YEARS and they still didn’t catch the AI art crap? Really? What the actual Hell are you paying your editors for? Art directors? How does a picture of a pile of obvious AI art go by all of these people? Did no one stop to question whether or not it should go to print?
Well, that cat is out of the bag now. How many other books that are ready to go, probably already printed, are screwed up with AI art, too? Planescape is apparently already in the hands of WotC’s cherry-picked reviewers. Yeah, it’s easy to change the digital copies. But what do you do with the ones already in print?
Here’s the point I think WotC is missing- good editing prevents the need for some sort of Crisis Response Communications Manager. See, if you prevent the crisis, you don’t need to manage one. This was a public relations flub much like #Hadozee that could have been prevented in editing. It’s so simple of you just look at the product.
Planescape is going to be scrutinized now. The Phandelver module is going to be scrutinized heavily now. Wizards simply can’t let this go on in violation of what they say are their own rules.
My Tinfoil Hat Society moment with this AI mess.
Here’s what I think the secret WotC agenda is on this deal. First, get a major screwup going on a big release. Then, because the uproar in the community is so loud, they’ll fix it in the electronic copy. D&D Beyond will have the updated art. But the print versions are already in the wild. Oops.
So, oh noes, those darn pesky print books are so hard to fix. They’ll stop selling print books, or fewer copies of every release, making them true collector’s items. Then they’ll jack the price up on physical copies even further. Here, come to our electronic market in the walled garden. Yeah, I could see WotC doing something along those lines. They’re already crying about printers and print cost.
Either that, or WotC must think we’re all pretty stupid. They are obviously encouraged by all of the people who re-upped their D&D Beyond subs and already have copies of the new book in hand for good reviews. Some of these people have already jumped on YouTube to tell us “how wonderful” the new shiny book will be. WotC could have really believed that cutting corners on art by using AI and saving some money was going to go by unnoticed. Obviously WotC must think we’ll blindly buy anything with a D&D logo on it. Quality control has gone out the window and it’s like they just don’t care.
Okay, tinfoil hats off now.
I think a lot of the outcry over AI art comes back to the concept of original content. Supposedly the artist in question, Ilya Shkipin, only used AI to “enhance” details as part of the editing process. Editing? Who else knew it was being “edited” this way?
This is another one of those situations where every time someone a WotC opens their mouth, I just want to scream BULLSHIT! Jeremy Crawford is rapidly becoming another one that falls into this category, and we’ll discuss that elsewhere. Huge $60-70 release and no one caught onto the AI art?
Was this whole AI mess in the Giants book really an accident? Was it really an innocent mistake? I have doubts. I would love to be wrong. Two years, at least a dozen pairs of eyes, and so much supposed scrutiny from all of these really highly paid individuals and this “mistake” went by? Incredible.
I don’t think WotC cares about the game of Dungeons & Dragons at all any more. It’s a brand and little else. It’s a big, mindless, consumer money grinding engine now. It’s about toys, clothes, video games and media sales. Game? There’s a tabletop game driving all of this? Who knew? Who’s in charge of this game? How much are we paying them? (gasp.)
Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.
Original art, friends.
As TTRPG fans, I think we all want original, genuinely hand crafted artwork. I know we’re not all Brandish Gilhelm of Runehammer Games fame. I think he’s an incredibly talented artist on top of being a top notch game designer and writer. It’s hard to write, layout, and draw our own games the way he does.
However, WotC D&D has artists on staff. They have a whole bloody retinue of artists who work on Magic: the Gathering cards. WotC makes millions of dollars per year on art. They can afford to drop original art in a D&D book. There’s no need to cut corners on editing or even concept art.
Now, in contrast, take a small company- a literal one man operation- writes an Old School Essentials dungeon adventure that uses dinosaurs. What are his options? Well, he can write the adventure and draw all of the maps the old fashioned way. He can drop it into a layout program and do all of the fancy borders, headers, and put the maps in. Then we come to cover art and filler art.
What did Gygax do? If it was just a filler piece, the designer might have to just draw it himself with a Sharpie marker or maybe a fancy art program. In 1974, it would have been pencil and pen just like comic books. The OG artists drew black & white concept art and that’s what got printed. Covers were color eventually. That’s what indie TTRPG writers pretty much have to do now, just with slightly better technology.
Once a game company starts paying for art, everything changes.
Original art is huge. Giving proper credit and payment for art is huge. Yes, one can go use public domain stock art where a small fee is paid to a website and the original artist somehow got paid. One can go on DeviantArt.com or some similar site and flat out buy or commission an artist, which is usually not cheap. Some publishers also cut a commission deal based on sales of the final product or a percentage of the crowdfunding. Sometimes it just plain gets complicated and possibly litigious.
After all of that, some of the stock art floating around out there is generated by AI. It’s a good, cheap shortcut to getting cheap art. Putting that in a TTRPG book is controversial at best. I don’t recommend anyone resort to AI art, which is also in line with the DriveThruRPG.com and other OneBookShelf site policies. I want a live human being to get paid for their hard work.
Until an indie TTRPG designer builds up some contacts, reputation, and money- there’s just not a lot of recourse. Small companies can make or break their entire development budget just on art. I often say, “art sells game books.” If that’s true, then can the designers really afford not to pay for quality art?
Wizards of the Coast isn’t a tiny little indie company. One D&D book might sell enough copies of a new release to dwarf any project by its closest competitors. They can afford artists. Smaller companies have to sweat that decision. If I were editing for Kobold Press, Paizo, or Chaosium, I’d have to be super careful with my art decisions.
Going forward.
Will Planescape have AI art that “accidentally” missed the editing process? Will the new Phandelver module be full of AI “enhanced” pictures? Would anyone in their right mind pay $69.99 or 89.99 for a book that uses art that I could generate myself using AI? Does that sound original? If I can go online to StarryAI or ImagineArt right now and get the same quality pieces that are in the latest D&D release, is the art selling the book anymore? What am I paying for?
Speaking of original art, there’s a fine line to tread. Obviously, the AI doesn’t have two kids and a wife at home needing food, shelter, and clothing among other things. An artist who tries to pass AI driven artwork as original risks serious damage to their reputation and accusations of plagiarism. Many AI art programs pick through the internet for bits and pieces of already published works and smash them together based on a description. Even “editing” a piece with AI might be considered cheating. What are we paying a live artist for if the computer will do it for the cost of electricity?
It’s ugly right now. This whole narrative might change in the coming years or decades. We didn’t used to use Photoshop to change anything significant in news photos. Now it’s common practice. Maybe AI will become common, acceptable use for the entire TTRPG industry someday. Right now, it’s a firestorm waiting to happen.
I firmly believe in human writers, artists, and game masters. I want to see that tradition continue for centuries to come. Let the AI do the nasty, ugly, dangerous, or tedious stuff that humans don’t really need to waste their lives on. Let humans do the creative, fun, interactive tasks that require a keen sense of artistry and soul to really accomplish.
Dear Wizards of the Coast:
I would like to officially extend my services as an editor to your company. Given the failures that led to #Hadozee, the overall failure of Spelljammer, and now this AI art disaster, I feel I am more than qualified to work on the D&D TTRPG design team. It is clear that several projects have been rushed through the process without much thought or care in regard to their effects on the audience.
For the bargain salary of $100,000 per year plus moving expenses, I’ll come to your corporate HQ and go over every major release in the D&D game line scheduled for the year and probably prevent many of the silly errors and lack of concrete thinking that have been going unnoticed for years now.
I actually do have a degree in Print Journalism from Drake University in Iowa. Also, I really can’t possibly do any worse than the staff you already have working on these books. Last, I actually play and enjoy Dungeons & Dragons as a tabletop game, which is far more than some of your people apparently do. Please let me know if I can be of service to you.
Your friend,
Jeff.
Thanks for stopping by, TTRPG family. I love and appreciate you being here. More on the AI art story if there are any new developments. Please enjoy your weekend.
Jeff's Game Box 