this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2024
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Fuck AI

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You should never support the scumbags at Hasbro/WOTC if you are into tabletop games

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Well to be fair, Hasbro is just a small startup. Of course they need AI to level the playing field with the other mega conglomerate in the board game space.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago

What terrible timing. The customers are increasingly suspicious of anything even labeled AI. Investors are pushing this, but even they are starting to get cold feet. It only makes sense if they can sell it, and they increasingly can't sell it.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

These are the same geniuses who tanked their big Hollywood movie by changing their game license just before the movie came out, right?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Has a 7.2/10 and 91% Tomato score. Profited over 50 million dollars. Hardly a tank

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's a great movie, the best movie yet to come out under the Dungeons and Dragons name. However:

The film made $93 million domestically, which is not good compared to the $150 million budget. Luckily, its worldwide total was $208.2 million, but with marketing costs, it is likely the film did not break even.

https://movieweb.com/dungeons-and-dragons-sequel-unlikely/

It's often difficult to identify why a film didn't perform well, but fan anger over the licensing changes likely contributed, e.g. see: https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-box-office-bomb-reason/

The movie could have been a huge hit instead of just maybe breaking even. Trying to rip off the core fans right before it came out was a dumb idea.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

fan anger over the licensing changes likely contributed

I know that is the specific reason why I haven't seen it and still intend specifically never to.

(Ok, to be fair I was going to end my Hasbro boycott and see it when they backpedaled and did the dual OGL/Creative Commons thing, but then they pulled the MTG Pinkerton bullshit and that made it clear Hasbro had learned less than nothing from the OGL 1.1 blowback.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can borrow the DVD from the library or buy it second-hand if you don't want Hasbro/WoC to get your money. Even if you've moved on to Pathfinder or something else, it's still a lot of fun.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean, borrowing the DVD from the library will make it unavailable for someone else who might want to watch it, which might incentivize them to buy a copy. Also, if it's always checked out and unavailable when people go to try to check it out, it may increase hype/enthusiasm about it. Buying it second-hand would have similar consequences.

I might pirate it if I can get a chance. Doing so a) wouldn't reduce supply of copies of it in ways that might incentivize others to purchase a copy or stream it on Paramount+ or whatever and b) kindof feels like a slap in the face of Hasbro of the sort I don't mind delivering.

I'm fully aware of how petty this all comes across, but, man, thoroughly fuck Hasbro. What a shitty company. Don't underestimate just how much I hate them. Lol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

No, it doesn't sound petty to spend your money carefully. I hope things get better with D&D.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Can I just use this opportunity to say that, while I enjoyed the movie, I spent the entire time waiting for the bard to use magic and it never happened? Because that really annoyed me. Don't call yourself a D&D movie and then have a bard that can't do magic. But somehow has a lute made of steel.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago (4 children)

If every company started jumping off a bridge, would you follow? /s

In all honesty, just because other companies are using AI doesn't mean you should. Can't wait for the AI bro bubble to pop and fully deflate.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

But think of the economy and the shareholders. We can not, I repeat; WE CAN NOT let them fail! /s

When do we eat?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

That'll never happen. The promise for profits is too high. They'll just keep massaging it and "improving" it till it's too late.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Isn't AI pretty much the opposite of why someone would play a tabletop rpg game?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Maybe, but among the rpgs, the Hasbro one is most LLM-like.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

On one hand, yes, but ever since the earliest of CRPGs, many people have dreamt of a virtual table top game in which literally anything is possible like that of a proper table top.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago

As one of the people leading the charge against Hasbro's use of AI art in HeroQuest, fuck you. We can tell the difference, the quality is garbage, you're stealing from qualified, skilled, hard-working artists, and we don't give a fuck about the shareholders; so knock it the hell off

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

In school they told us not to do drugs even if everyone was doing it...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, but drugs are awesome

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Pretty much every kid that did D.A.R.E. when I was in middle school ended up smoking copious amounts of weed at the very least. D.A.R.E. shirts were a hot stoner commodity when I was in high school.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Guess they were wrong.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I actually can't believe CEOs are this stupid. We legitimately live in Idiocracy. Do they actually think pointing to a random part of their business and saying "AI it!" will do anything? They're probably going to use it for customer-facing generative AI or LLMs, which have already been shown to reduce customer enthusiasm! The companies who are going to be mildly successful with this will either put in the effort to find an actually useful use case for it, or will use it internally to remove like 60% of their workforce (most companies are too dumb for this, but the profits would be enormous if they ever figured it out).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Who knows how many companies have already done the latter part of your comment. We'd have no idea, we'd just see unemployment numbers rising.

Oh dear...

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah, I've been boycotting Hasbro since the whole OGL 1.1 fiasco. Fuck 'em.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fuck D&D, fuck Hasbro. There's plenty of better alternatives.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What terrible timing. The customers are increasingly suspicious of anything even labeled AI. Investors are pushing this, but even they are starting to get cold feet. It only makes sense if they can sell it, and they increasingly can't sell it.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's nothing. Wait until Mattel's AI Talking Barbie tells little kids how to kill their parents...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

It will probably just talk them into having eating disorders

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean... if everyone else is doing it, then market yourself as the only one NOT doing it. Making sure you are doing the same as everyone else doesn't sound like a recipe for success in their business.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

It's PR speak for "We promised our shareholders layoffs for more profit".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Another day, another trend-chasing, creativity-hating corporation doing its thing. I really hope I can eventually get a cool art job despite all of this. Edit: Good thing I'm gonna try good ol' Mathfinder out once I graduate from my DnD 5e training wheels.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Everyone who is doing it is also fielding immense amounts of complaints from everyone forced to use it, but I guess we ignore those pesky details.

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