Why has a noted Wizards of the Coast artist quit working for the company? The ‘Magic: The Gathering’ controversy, explained

Things are looking bleak for artists at the moment, and a situation unfolding over at Magic: The Gathering‘s parent company Wizards of the Coast is a solid example of why. 

The basics go something like this: In a new age of artificial intelligence, Wizards of the Coast has been steadfast in their assertion that none of their products will be A.I. generated. That promise came into question recently when a series of promotional images for the company’s “Ravnica Remastered” card set looked, to fans, not quite right.

Wizards of the Coast’s critical miss

Responding to internet complaints that the backgrounds in the company’s promotional images had a lot of the hallmarks of A.I.-generated art, Wizards of the Coast released a since-deleted statement on X, promising that, like everything they produced, their promotional art was made by people. Real people. The kinds with arteries and pets and stuff.

Longtime Magic: The Gathering artist David Rapoza was one of several big names in the industry who put their foot down. Replying to the company’s post, Rapoza disagreed with the claim that WotC just happened to hire an artist who drew things in a way that looks a lot like A.I.-generated art. 

Since Rapoza’s public exit from the company, Wizards of the Coast has stepped back its claims regarding the authenticity of their purportedly man-made promo images, posting on January 7 that they’d “made a mistake earlier” and that “…some AI components that are now popping up in industry-standard tools like Photoshop crept into our marketing creative.” They pointed out that the work had been purchased from a vendor, and promised that they were “evaluating” the way that they worked with contractors.

AI-generated art is, at best, ethically gray, as it’s created through the amalgamation and reconstruction of pre-existing work. This is around the point in the proceedings where aspiring philosophy majors like to point out that all art is just a reimagining of pre-existing data. Aspiring philosophy majors don’t get invited out very often.

Complicating matters further is the fact that A.I. artwork can be difficult to spot, and can slip through the cracks of the production process pretty easily, as may or may not have happened when Wizards of the Coast announced their 2024 Player’s Handbook by posting a picture of a dwarf with a lower-than-average number of arms.

We may never know exactly what happened with the creation of this image, though companies being raked over the coals by unhappy fans for using A.I. generated art is something we’re going to see much more of this year. So, if you’re in marketing, want to knock up a quick image and figure you can take a shortcut, maybe consider just paying an artist.