D&D 5E D&D Beyond Cancels Competition

D&D Beyond has been running an art contest which asked creators to enter D&D-themed portrait frame. DDB got to use any or all of the entries, while the winner and some runners up received some digital content as a prize.

There was a backlash -- and DDB has cancelled the contest.

Thank you to all of our community for sharing your comments and concerns regarding our anniversary Frame Design Contest.

While we wanted to celebrate fan art as a part of our upcoming anniversary, it's clear that our community disagrees with the way we approached it. We've heard your feedback, and will be pulling the contest.

We will also strive to do better as we continue to look for ways to showcase the passion and creativity of our fellow D&D players and fans in the future. Our team will be taking this as a learning moment, and as encouragement to further educate ourselves in this pursuit.

Your feedback is absolutely instrumental to us, and we are always happy to listen and grow in response to our community's needs and concerns. Thank you all again for giving us the opportunity to review this event, and take the appropriate action.

The company went on to say:

Members of our community raised concerns about the contest’s impact on artists and designers, and the implications of running a contest to create art where only some entrants would receive a prize, and that the prize was exclusively digital material on D&D Beyond. Issues were similarly raised with regards to the contest terms and conditions. Though the entrants would all retain ownership of their design to use in any way they saw fit, including selling, printing, or reproducing, it also granted D&D Beyond rights to use submitted designs in the future. We have listened to these concerns, and in response closed the competition. We’ll be looking at ways we can better uplift our community, while also doing fun community events, in the future.

Competitions where the company in question acquires rights to all entries are generally frowned upon (unless you're WotC).

 

[Morrus]

I see two problems with that language: 1) It requires a small staff to proactively keep track of, in theory, hundreds or thousands of entries and handle them in one of several different ways and 2) it also opens them up to lawsuits if they ever produce something that arguably resembles something submitted in a contest.

In this case in particular, there's really only so many things one can do with a ring around a character portrait, and thus the odds that DDB would release on that at least superficially resembles a contest entry is very high.

So just don’t do it. Make your own ring around a picture. It’d cost a couple hundred bucks.

If your want the PR benefit of the contest, which you presumably value as more than the cost of hiring a freelancer to draw you a border, then you can make a better contest. Or risk the negative PR of a less good contest.

 

[Charlaquin]

But...why not just NOT enter the contest then?

It's like buying a lottery ticket. If your ticket loses, the lottery organization still keeps your money. If you aren't willing to walk away from it, don't enter in the first place.

Right, the problem isn’t that you don’t get anything if you don’t win (and frankly putting that at the front of the statement was probably a mistake, as it muddies the real issue). The problem is that DDB owns your submission whether you win or not.

 

[Dragonsbane]

.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Your fallacies were absurd and didn't refute my statement that negative feedback is in fact a complaint.

If "negative feedback" and "complaint" are equivalent to you... why didn't you continue to use the phrase "negative feedback" as the people you were responding to were?

 

[Greg Benage]

Right, the problem isn’t that you don’t get anything if you don’t win (and frankly putting that at the front of the statement was probably a mistake, as it muddies the real issue). The problem is that DDB owns your submission whether you win or not.

No they don't.

 

[Malmuria]

Right, the problem isn’t that you don’t get anything if you don’t win (and frankly putting that at the front of the statement was probably a mistake, as it muddies the real issue). The problem is that DDB owns your submission whether you win or not.

which is also pretty rich for a company whose business model is licensing wotc's material, repackaging it, and renting it out via a subscription service that could end at any time (aka the $800 "prize" of the competition).

 

[Charlaquin]

Or more likely it was the fear of being target of the newest s##tstorm and they just retreated because they deemed it not worth to stand their ground for those who may have liked their contest.

And if that’s the case? The storm of feces got them to end an unethical contest. That’s a win, regardless of their reason for ending it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

No. Negative feedback is a complaint. Feedback is not. It will be both positive and negative and will offer some solutions for the weak points and commendations for the good points. When all you do in your feedback is to complain, then it is a complaint. Max's position on that one is perfectly valid. The complainers have effectively shut down any chances of someone to win the contest and for others to show their art and their chance to be recognized. Now, DDB will turn on a professional artist and pay an already established professional.

These contests are usually entered by the non professional to get a chance for their art to be known. They might not win, but if good enough, they might get commissions. It happened to a friend of mine. He got second place and now earn his living as a painter of magnificent landscape and portraits.

If "feedback" CAN be positive and negative and is not complaining... the "negative feedback" is merely "feedback" where there is nothing positive to be found. If something sucks and you point out all the reasons why it sucks... you aren't "complaining", you are just giving them feedback that they did a bad job.

Needing to find one positive in and amongst all the negatives just so the person can't be accused of "complaining" (because in your opinion "feedback" requires both)... is stupid and artificial.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

which is also pretty rich for a company whose business model is licensing wotc's material, repackaging it, and renting it out via a subscription service that could end at any time (aka the $800 "prize" of the competition).

Services can be prizes, too.

If you won house cleaning, it wouldn't be less of a prize since you're inevitably going to mess up your house again.

 

[Morrus]

Oh, so personal autonomy isn't a thing anymore? People aren't allowed to make decisions for themselves?

I know! All those people in sweatshops across the world! Why didn't they just not take the job? Everybody has that power, right?