Ryan Dancey leaves AEG after claiming AI can design “as good” as humans

The board game industry has been rocked by the sudden departure of Ryan Dancey from Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). The veteran executive, who served as Chief Operating Officer for over a decade, left the company following a series of controversial social media posts in which he claimed that artificial intelligence could generate game designs equal to the company’s current hits.

The friction began on LinkedIn when Ryan Dancey responded to a post arguing that AI lacks the “human element of fun” required to create titles like Tiny Towns, Flip 7, or Cubitos. Dancey disagreed, suggesting that game publishing is less about “unique special ideas” and more about execution—a task he believes AI is well-suited for.

The backlash from the tabletop community was swift. Critics, including designers and media outlets like The Cardboard Herald, argued that such comments devalued the creative labour of human designers. By the following morning, AEG CEO John Zinser confirmed on Bluesky that the company and Dancey had parted ways, citing the need for “leadership alignment.”

Ryan Dancey, COO at AEG, said in a statement on LinkedIn:

I have zero reason to believe that an AI couldn’t come up with Tiny Towns or Flip Seven or Cubitos. I can prompt any of several AIs RIGHT NOW and get ideas for games as good as those. The gaming industry doesn’t exist because humans create otherwise unobtainable ideas. It exists because many many previous games exist, feed into the minds of designers, who produce new variants on those themes.”

A “Ratner Moment” for Tabletop?

Industry analysts have drawn parallels between this incident and the infamous 1991 “Ratner moment,” where the CEO of a major jewellery chain tanked his company’s value by publicly calling its products “crap.” By suggesting that AEG’s core catalogue could be replicated by a prompt-driven algorithm, Dancey arguably committed a modern equivalent, alienating the very creative talent the industry relies upon.

Despite the fallout, Dancey later attempted to clarify his position, maintaining that while he believes AI is a “civilizational turning point,” he had implemented policies at AEG to prohibit freelancers from using generative AI without permission.

John Zinser, CEO at AEG, explained in a statement:

Today I want to share that Ryan Dancey and AEG have parted ways. This is not an easy post to write. Ryan has been a significant part of AEG’s story… As AEG moves into its next chapter, leadership alignment and clarity matter more than ever. This transition reflects that reality. Our commitment to our designers, partners, retailers, and players remains unchanged.”

Ryan Dancey is a towering figure in geek culture, though often polarising. He was a key architect of the original Open Game License (OGL) during his time at Wizards of the Coast and instrumental in the 2023 community campaign to protect that license from Hasbro’s planned revocation. His departure marks the end of an era for AEG, a publisher known for hits like Love Letter and Space Base.