Cutting out the absurdities to try to focus on something constructive...
when 50% roughly that the D&D studio works on gets tossed in the trash
Is that true? Is it still true? At what point are those projects scrapped. Because if it's at the "hey, this could be neat" phase then there's no loss. If it's the project is finished and they're minutes from announcing the release then trash it, a lot of work is lost. That distinction really matters.
and the rest tends to be shades of poorly done when the D&D studio doesn't have adult supervision (freelancers Keith, Matt, or George for examples of adult supervision).
Other than Spelljammer, there's not much that's even close to universally reviled that WotC has put out. Even 5E Spelljammer has fans and defenders.
We should be getting products equal to the 5e Southland Kickstarter, instead we are getting setting products without the settings. This is absurd.
Kobold Press gets to innovate because they aren't trying to hold onto the #1 RPG spot in the world. They put out great stuff, that's true. But WotC can't innovate. The fans won't let them. Last time they tried we got 4E and the fans revolted. So WotC pulled back and went as safe, vanilla, middle-of-the-road as they possibly could with 5E.
New visionary leadership is needed.
Then they definitely need to stay away from do-nothing, know-nothing blowhards like Musk.
And as big as the problems with D&D are, the issues with MtG dwarf it with a major consumer revolt going on, and multiple WotC studios that have been around for years and yet have yet to produce any products at all.
It's what happens when you flood the market. Even the whales can't keep up.
Maybe this is finally the time for the activist investors to make their next more or at least close to that time because it appears they have been vindicated.
Most companies expand to meet demand. WotC did the same. Now that COVID restrictions are going away, even though COVID is here to stay, people are spending less time at home, less money on entertainment, etc. So the market contracts. A lot of companies were caught by this. Even though they shouldn't have been.
it's the hardcore fans that create the buzz that draws in the casuals in the first place (this is shown by the Fandom survey/research that basically fandoms in 4 grades from the most hardcore fans to the most casual casuals).
Source?
Their current approach is to alienate hardcore fans to court casuals, and that is a problem because it's the hardcore fans the build the foundation the gets you the casuals.
That's not what's going on. WotC is ignoring grognards, long-term older fans who are attached to older editions of D&D. WotC is focusing on players of 5E, while somewhat ignoring referees. You can see this because every book includes player options. Players outnumber referees at least 10-1. If they want to sell books, they need to sell them to players. So they include player options in every book.
It's what made the MCU (and ignoring that truth is killing the MCU) for example.
What made the MCU was not holding onto the canon of the comic books too tightly. Letting go of the canon is what made the MCU popular in the first place. Again, the market is simply over saturated at this point.
