@ryandancey.com
Respect other's life choices; defend free speech; protect democracy; yield to the rule of law; apologize when wrong; pay your taxes; debate honestly; celebrate diversity; and do unto others as you would have done unto you
A few days ago I conducted a lengthy interview with Wargamer. Over more than an hour we spoke about a wide range of topics centered on AI and the tabletop gaming space. The results of that interview went live today.
www.wargamer.com/board-games/...
If you are a member of the @ttgda.bsky.social I encourage you to complete the AI / Tariffs survey they're currently circulating. You will find information about it in their most recent email communications.
www.ttgda.org
Oh well.
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Saying a thing is possible is not the same as saying that thing should be done. Pretending a thing is not possible when it is can be harmful. Being offended that someone thinks something is possible when you don’t is irrational. If they are wrong, they are wrong. Action matters, not hypotheticals.
Launched my new company today. Wide Pacific Horizon will allow me to continue my consulting work in business analysis, strategy, marketing and podcasting.
I am hopeful that Iran buckles and gives up some major concessions. They're weaker than they've been in decades and their ability to threaten violence against Israel is crippled. The mullahs really don't need to be living in caves right now.
Then a lot of people have spent a lot of money and time on something that didn't work out. That happens.
It seems reasonable to me to think about what happens if it changes the world adaptively and not wait until the world is changed to start thinking.
It's either gonna happen or not, quickly.
Who SHOULD it replace? Nobody. It would be best if AI were purely additive or didn't even exist. Who is it almost certainly GOING to replace? All sorts of people in all sorts of jobs. It's a civilizational change moment and we're not discussing it honestly or openly.
I have never advocated for AEG to use AI in the creation of any game product. I wrote and enforced the policies and contracts that established that prohibition at the company. I've never worked on a game designed or developed with AI and I have little interest in doing so.
well Chris, I have never advocated for replacing humans with AI. I wrote and enforced the policies at AEG that prohibit the use of AI in AEG's products. I've never worked on a project designed or developed by AI and I really don't have much interest in doing one.
During my time at AEG I developed and implemented polices and contracts that reflect those views. It's important to me that you know what I believe and what I don't believe on this particular topic, despite what you may have read elsewhere.
For the record: I do not believe that AI will replace the work talented game designer/developers do, nor do I think it is appropriate to use AI to replace the role of designer/developers in the publication of tabletop games.
Humans have a unique creative spark that differentiates us and makes us special and we should celebrate that specialness as we experience this epic change.
Talking about AI, being honest about what it can and cannot do, and thinking about the implications is something we have to begin to do in a widespread way.
I believe we're at a civilizational turning point. That who we are and how we are is going to change on the order of what happened during the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions; and it's past time we started talking about it and not being afraid to discuss the topic.
Sorry to have things end like this. I've enjoyed my 10 years at AEG. I wish the team there the best in their future endeavors.
This morning @aegjohnz.bsky.social and I talked about the aftermath of my post yesterday about the ability of AI to create ideas for games. He's decided that it's time for me to move on to new adventures.
The motion is adopted by unanimous consent.
Does Blades '68 require a copy of Blades in the Dark to play?
It would have been an interesting challenge to think about how to do "settings" in a way that didn't fragment that core D&D audience. At the time we were in triage mode and the patient was bleeding out so I didn't attempt that.
They're not fragile.
I wish I could report on the success of Dungeons & Dragons in 2025 but Hasbro intentionally obfuscates those numbers; they cannot be determined by reading Hasbro's SEC filings or public financial disclosures to analysts.
Imagine if Wizards of the Coast had Games Workshop's price to sales ratio? It would be worth $20 billion.
Hasbro's market cap is $14.53 billion on $4.36 billion in revenue. Mattel's is $6.91 billion on $5.23 billion in revenue. Games Workshop's is $7.64 on $841m in revenue. Asmodee's is $2.85 billion on $1.52 billion in revenue.
Hasbro's P/E is incalculable since it doesn't make much earnings but it doesn't take a card game designer to figure that if it was putting a billion dollars on the bottom line its stock price would be a lot higher than it is now.
Hasbro has recovered the value it destroyed while fucking around and finding out the cost to mess with the OGL. It's stock price closed today at $104, slightly above its price in January of 2022, and up from the trough of $48 from March of 2023.
It doesn't really matter how many years you look back - for most of the twenty-first century Hasbro's toy & games businesses under various names has consistently either barely broken even or has lost money.
Last year it made $2.5 billion and generated $115 million of profit, adjusted down to $36 million with "non-GAAP Adjustments".
The Consumer Products division - the part that makes all the toys and all the games that aren't made by Wizards of the Coast, makes more revenue - this year it made $2.4 billion compared to Wizards' $2.2 billion. But it took a write-down of $942 million.
Once again, Wizards of the Coast made all the profit at Hasbro while the rest of the company lost money. For 2025, the whole company made $11 million. Every other part of Hasbro lost money except the entertainment division which made $400k in profit.