The Business: Can The Only Game That Matters Be A Billion-Dollar Brand?

Last Wednesday, Roll For Combat again asks the question.

TLDR: Not as it is now.

The irony is that Wizards Of The Coast knows what it would take to make it happen, flubbed that transition once, but because there is no competition within the niche WOTC recovered and are going to try again. The idea is simple, and the tech is now present to allow for it: bot-controlled (agentic AI) players to fill out a table. As we already having them running household appliances, directly contacting each other, and other such functionality playing The Only Game That Matters (and communicating with others doing so) is not impossible- and given the success of Claude Code, it is now probable.

You better believe that conversation's going on in Seattle.

For that matter, agentic online Magic players are also possible and have been for a while.

The route out of the current rut is to remove the friction that requiring other human players to play imposes. For any tabletop game, having bots play other characters and/or run the game is no longer impossible or improbable; it's now probable, and increasingly doable. For WOTC, that is well within their capabilies now that Claude Code exists if senior management gives the go-ahead and clears the way for implementation within Beyond.

The test case would be to implement agentic players for Magic. They look like players, act like players, have unique decks, etc. because, for all intents and purposes, they ARE players.

If someone really wanted to test it, be outside the company and build that agent; get it an account and let it go to work playing the game. Document the process. Keep at it (if starting now) until end of Q2 this year in September; present in Q3, and propose making agentic D&D players in Q4 in Beyond for implementation in 2027.

This is such an obvious move that I will be disappointed if it doesn't happen.

Yes, it is that obvious- so obvious that your typical MBA bro can see it, and they aren't known for being particularly cunning, bright, or competent.

Do that--remove that friction--and you make D&D into a billion-dollar brand by 2030 because human players can now play when they want, how they want, for as long as they want, and they can do so from anywhere via Beyond. It is that friction that is keeping Normies from mass adoption, and anyone wanting billion-dollar brand status must have all the Normiebux, so yeet that friction and grab that bag.

This is how Conventional Play can endure, but only WOTC can do it. Everyone else cannot; they will collapse, go non-commercial, or admit defeat and reform back to being a Real Game.