Why We Should Work With WotC

[darjr]

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And it’s deleted.

 

[Justice and Rule]

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"This Tweet has been deleted"

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Uh, I mean, that's one way of looking at it.



And you're too blinded by your devotion. Movies and games don't mean anything when you are killing the RPG line by turning into a microtransaction factory for a VTT. Trying to homogenize the DnD experience with video games down to big subscriptions and microtransactions is a great way to kill off an audience who signed up for a RPG and not a MMO.

Hey maybe show proof of any micro transactions for the VTT. Oh wait you can't cause it's not out yet, and people are just making stuff up.

People saying the game is going to be turned into an MMO have no idea what they are talking about.

 

[gamerprinter]

Looking at these discussions of what RPG corporations need to make to even consider they are profiting, makes me damn glad I'm a very small concern, and a sole proprietor. Like most 3PP, I'm a one-person show, who operates out of my own home, and though I also publish for 2 other authors besides myself, and have paid for artist contractors in the past, my operating costs are very low, considering I have no employees, and almost never any contractors. I pay monthly subscriptions to Adobe, and for the 3D programs I use to create illustrations, and the electric bill to pay for the operation of my computers - those are my only true expenses, aside from maintaining my computers, electronics equipment and software (replacement now and again, etc.). The only other investment I have in my work is "time", which I greatly value.

Unlike many 3PP, I'm a professional freelance illustrator, cartographer and graphic designer so I create all my own art. Art is a major expense for most small publishers, especially for cover art pieces and maps. So not only do I not have to contract my art, I can include boatloads of extra maps and other art content, that most publishers couldn't dream of affording and still have a profitable end product. I also do my own page layout. Advertising wise, I only do grass-roots, non-cost, posts to ENWorld, Paizo boards, Facebook and other social media, I don't pay for advertising ever. Although the many products I sell on DrivethruRPG provides points I can use to apply to banner ads on the website, which I've yet to cash in, after 15 years of doing that - so I do have another free form of advertising available that I can use.

About 5 years ago, I released Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide supplement for Starfinder co-written by myself and Edward Moyer. For 6 months it was the #1 Starfinder 3PP product being sold on DrivethruRPG. It's a "Silver" best seller on that platform still. Some products do great, some products less so, but on average I get decent sales on new products, and continuous sales on all products. I've got one map product, among many, that's a $2.00 costing 1880's steam train map set, over the past decade I've sold that one product 20,000 times. So I'm not a big guns publisher, but I am still successful. Definitely not what a corporate entity would consider profitable, but for me it's plenty profitable. I don't need to ever become a big publisher, as long as I continue at the level I am now, I am content, though always hope for growth in the future...

 

[Justice and Rule]

Hey maybe show proof of any micro transactions for the VTT. Oh wait you can't cause it's not out yet, and people are just making stuff up.

Sure, dude, and they were totally making stuff up about OGL 1.1, too! It's all made up! None of this is true! Don't believe your eyes and ears! ONLY BELIEVE FRIEND WIZARD!

FRIEND WIZARD KNOWS BEST
FRIEND WIZARD KNOWS ALL
FRIEND WIZARD IS HERE TO HELP*

* ANY ACTION DEEMED HATEFUL, HARMFUL, DISRESPECTFUL OR MOCKING TO FRIEND WIZARD WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION OF LICENSE**
**RIGHTS GRANTED BY LICENSE ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED TO CONTINUING PAID SUBSCRIPTION TO FRIEND WIZARD, SUBSISTANCE ON THAY-IMPORTED GRUEL, AND LIFE. IF REVOKED, UNDEAD TABLE TERMS COME INTO EFFECT AUTOMATICALLY.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Sal's Pizza, down on the corner, has a storefront, kitchen, seating, and all that. They sell pizza, and folks buy pizza. Normal relationship. They don't, however, advertise that every other person who wants to start a restaurant can come and use their space and utilities, free of charge, to do pop-up restaurant business.

Maybe doing so would be good for Sal's. But they aren't a parasite for not doing it. If they do it for a decade, and a thriving community of pop-up restaurants develops, just yanking that venue out from under them to make room for arcade games would be a jerk move, and we'd argue against it, but it wouldn't make them a parasite. "I make/provide stuff, you buy stuff," is not parasitism.

Except that they didn't just convert the space into an arcade, but also demanded 25% of the profits from anyone else who wants to make pizza from now on. THAT is what makes them into a parasite.

 

[raniE]

Doesn't matter what you or I think about general professional practices, they are what they are. Your objection to them in this particular case will never impact anything. Sorry, but that's just the plain truth.

As I sarcastically told another poster, I literally accounted for no one being above Chris Cocks in the post you quoted, if you'd bother to read the whole section you posted rather than just skimming it for something to immediately reply to.

Now, sometimes companies do give the job of being the face of the apology to a more junior person in a leadership role, like they did to Mr Brinks, but if this gets to the point where the board steps in and is directly issuing orders to change course and make apologies for the entire debacle, it will be a statement from as high up as they can without forcing any one person to debase themselves, and the text will read as a statement from the company as a whole, not from any one individual. It may have a personal preamble about how much the writer loves dnd or whatever, but the actual apology will be an apology from the company, and it will be to the public, not to individual publishers, one by one, with custom drafter letters for each one. That just isn't a thing.

No, my disgust with it alone won’t do anything. Just like me not purchasing Hasbro products won’t do anything on its own or one person shouting “down with the monarchy” in France in 1791 didn’t do anything on its own. Get enough people together saying the same thing? The king dies, the company reverts course and yes, executive officers will get thrown under the bus.

 

[Maxperson]

Adventures were always the lowest selling books for WOTC D&D. They always rank lower than core and options books.

We'd need internals to see exact numbers.

Sure. Adventures no matter how well made will ALWAYS be lower than core books and options books. That's the nature of the beast. They might still be able to do both profitably, though. I'm not sure I fully buy your premise here.

 

[rcade]

The gaming community has, for twenty years, enjoyed basically unprecedented ease of work with WotC. The vast majority of IP holders don't let other commercial interests play with their stuff nearly so easily. One might even say we were given great privilege.

I'd rather say that the benefits were mutual. Hasbro/WOTC shared a single document under the newly created OGL believing this would make the company more money and the idea wildly succeeded.

 

[Vaalingrade]

People saying the game is going to be turned into an MMO have no idea what they are talking about.

Yeah, there's still time for them to pivot to a mobile gatcha.