Dungeons & Dragons is the most famous tabletop fantasy game out there. Players engage in a role-playing game as various creatures as they go on an adventure. One setback for new players is that it takes a while to know your way around the game, but Hasbro believes that AI might help with that.
Dungeons & Dragons & AI
Publisher of the tabletop game, Hasbro announced that it will try to add AI elements into Dungeons & Dragons. The company has already partnered with Xplored, which is the developer of the digital board game, Teburu.
With the experience of Xplored in the digital field, Hasbro will be able to "deliver innovative gameplay" to players and fans, as well as "limitless digital expansions to physical games, seamless onboarding, and powerful AI-driven game mechanics."
Hasbro Gaming Senior Vice President Adam Biehl also mentioned that the AI will not only generate experiences but react to the decisions of players quickly as well, which in turn, could streamline the rules and make it easier for new players to try it, as mentioned in Gizmodo.
With the collaboration, Hasbro is also looking into other possibilities such as a virtual version of Dungeons & Dragons. There are already people who have playtested the pre-alpha version, according to reports, which means that it's well on its way.
In fact, Biehl even stated that the use of AI could even result in new games being created. Even with Hasbro diving into the AI hype, the game's marketplace, Dungeon Masters Guild, is still wary of AI-generated content on the platform.
It has implemented rules that do not allow the sale of standalone AI products. Creators will also have to indicate that the content is AI-generated when it is featured in rulebooks and adventures. As of today, primarily AI-generated written content will no longer be allowed as well.
It's not contradicting at all as Hasbro intends to use AI to enhance the gaming experience for players and make it easier for them, while using AI to create art has been a major issue in the art community.
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AI in Games
This is not the first time that AI is used in games, although mostly it applies to video games. In fact, NVIDIA launched an AI model foundry service called Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) that lets players interact with NPCs like real people.
The non-playable characters will not be limited to the dialogue that developers created for them. Instead, the AI model would be able to generate answers to the players' questions. All they have to do is speak through their mics as they would with a virtual assistant.
Using NVIDIA NeMo, developers are able to build and customize large language models which will provide the NPC with a backstory. Through the text-to-speech tool Riva, your speech will be "understood" by the NPC, as mentioned in Engadget.
Soon enough, AI will be more widely used in games, and with AR and VR technology being more developed over time, there are a lot of exciting possibilities in store for gamers.
