D&D 5E Forgotten Realms is being BETRAYED by Wizards

Oofta said:

Well, all of that was introduced with 4E (at which point FR did jump the shark in my opinion). In WOTC's defense they're trying to jump back over the shark with 5E, but other than claiming that it was all just a bad dream there's only so much they can do.

Warforged had kind of a cool background and actually fit with Eberron's story. In FR? Not so much.

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Hey, if that shark would have shut it's big, fat mouth then nothing would happened. You can't be talking like that and expect nothing to happen...

Zardnaar said:

Heh wish they went back to the 1st boxed set instead of the Spellplague.

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Sent from my SM-T350 using EN World mobile app

seebs said:

... I also admit that what I really want to do is get some of those posters to explain their actual complaint, because it's quite clear that the thing they're actually upset about has nothing to do with the threads.

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The thing I'm often curious about is, "What is it that you hope will happen because you posted this?" I have to sort of assume a poster like that doesn't really expect that Wizards will offer an apology for screwing things up, or change their direction because of Stuff That One Dude On The Internet Complained About. But who knows?

Just once in a while, I'd like someone to come out and say, "Oh, I'm just frustrated and howling into the void, don't mind me." But that type of fannish entitlement doesn't seem to come bundled with much introspection, alas.

I suspect often the answer is, "I want everyone to validate me and tell me how right I am," except that these folks keep bringing the same sort of thing to the same community that clearly doesn't have the same perspective - so it may also come with a side of, "But failing that, I want all the attention I get when I stir the poo, even if it's negative." And there we have the conundrum.

ProgBard said:

The thing I'm often curious about is, "What is it that you hope will happen because you posted this?" I have to sort of assume a poster like that doesn't really expect that Wizards will offer an apology for screwing things up, or change their direction because of Stuff That One Dude On The Internet Complained About. But who knows?

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I also frequent - not as much these days - wargaming forums. And believe me when I say that this place has nothing on the negativity that can be shown towards Games Workshop on a relevant forum thread. One observation that was made commonly in such places is that, every once in a while, the guys behind Transformers - Hasbro, but a different division from Mearls et al. - would go to a relevant con and show a graph which demonstrated what percentage of sales went to the 'online vocal fans' demographic, and it was always vanishingly small. They reportedly did this in order to demonstrate that they were not going to listen to said demographic, since they were not going to keep the lights on, and as a way of trying to make the online fans understand that they did not speak for 'all fans'.

I honestly have no idea if that is true or not. But I think that there is certainly something true in the ideas expressed in that story.

Charles Rampant said:

show a graph which demonstrated what percentage of sales went to the 'online vocal fans' demographic, and it was always vanishingly small. They reportedly did this in order to demonstrate that they were not going to listen to said demographic

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Cute, astute, and hard to refute.

Harder to quantify: the damage done to the brand by those 'online vocal fans.'

Jester David said:

Okay... I get this is satire. But it's still satire aimed at another poster here at these boards.

We really don't need more negativity here.

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Sounds like satire /of/ negativity.

Charles Rampant said:

I also frequent - not as much these days - wargaming forums. And believe me when I say that this place has nothing on the negativity that can be shown towards Games Workshop on a relevant forum thread. One observation that was made commonly in such places is that, every once in a while, the guys behind Transformers - Hasbro, but a different division from Mearls et al. - would go to a relevant con and show a graph which demonstrated what percentage of sales went to the 'online vocal fans' demographic, and it was always vanishingly small. They reportedly did this in order to demonstrate that they were not going to listen to said demographic, since they were not going to keep the lights on, and as a way of trying to make the online fans understand that they did not speak for 'all fans'.

I honestly have no idea if that is true or not. But I think that there is certainly something true in the ideas expressed in that story.

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As they say, I don't know if that's a true story, but there's a lot of truth in it.

Meanwhile, I suspect the D&D team's response, if they had one, to what you rightly call the "hyperbolic nonsense" that sometimes flourishes in a venue like this would be, "We are prepared to give your concerns exactly the weight that they merit."

At least one Realms author has confirmed that WotC has warned it's writers to stay away from forum spaces. In this particular instance the Candlekeep forums.

Jeremy E Grenemyer said:

At least one Realms author has confirmed that WotC has warned it's writers to stay away from forum spaces. In this particular instance the Candlekeep forums.

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PERKIIIIIIINS!!!!!!!!!

ProgBard said:

And I might go even further to say that it's a good thing for communities to make a point from time to time of de-normalizing discourse that's hyperbolic and entitled and itself a source of overwrought negativity. We ought to be able to point at something and say, "You know what? This is silly. Let's do better."

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First, an admission: I laughed heartily with both the OP and the bingo card. And then I was just going to bold that phrase and reply with, "So much work to do outside these forums..." But that made me think. Does satire actually accomplish the desired de-normalization? Unfortunately, I think not. If it did, the world would be a very different place; Stephen Colbert would be second in influence only to God. At best it is a little reminder to forumites who likely don't make the targeted sort of posts anyway.

Make no mistake: this is not to discourage the satire. It provides amusement and, to be honest, probably some validation for people who (believe that they) don't write That Kind of Post. But people who do write That Kind of Post will either not recognize it or be alienated.

So what to do? Sadly, I doubt that any of us is in a position to help the tortured souls who rail against the sins of WoTC out of their morass. To me it seems like the only thing at all helpful is to look away from the train wreck*. Don't reply to posts you want to discourage. They will fall to the bottom of the threads list and be forgotten. You will have saved yourself some time that you can employ more usefully, and maybe, just maybe there is a small outside chance that the poster will find something more constructive to do when (s)he has no 'WoTC apologists' to do battle with.

*Although honestly I find this difficult to do, too. These people have posted something wrong on the Internet and they need to be corrected, and I am just the person to do it!

Jester David said:

Okay... I get this is satire. But it's still satire aimed at another poster here at these boards.

We really don't need more negativity here.

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The OP would have been laugh-worthy if only it had placed this where the IRL guy's name appears.

Since it is not directed at a specific user, and specifically me , I think this thread is fine.

But I curious, apparently there are a lot of folks that don't like Chris Perkins out there. I only know his DnD 5e stuff because I was away from the hoppy for a long time, but I've become a fan. I like Curse of Straud and Storm Kings Thunder and I like his various DnD gameplay videos.

So, can someone direct me to threads where people are hating on him. Just curious what their beef is. I can see "meh, not my style" or "hate his stupid baseball cap," but otherwise seems like a hard guy to dislike.