Jadeite
Open Gaming Enthusiast
WotC has done Loot Boxes for 30 years. They call them "Magic the Gathering" or something.
Last edited:
Matt Colville weighs in.
reelo
Hero
Especially since "regularly throwing away campaign notes and worldbuilding stuff" is not something I expect any DM, let alone MC to do. Like, AT ALL!
Yep. Apparently that they did. And yeah... I don't blame him at all for being creeped out about it having happened. It was just how he reacted to it that did not serve the purposes he probably wanted it to.
Thankfully... I suspect the small group of people who follow him on Twitch who were watching that livestream recognized it was just him as an open wound, and thus did not get overly bothered by how short he was with everyone and how he was pretty much slapping them for even being there and being interested in what he had created thus far.
He exposed his wound to the open air in hopes of helping it heal (by being kind of a cranky jerk to the folks in attendance) but thankfully the attendance was small enough that if anyone did get overly defensive or offended by his attitude there wasn't enough response for it to turn into a thing.
eyeheartawk
#1 Enworld Jerk™
Yeah, it really is shameful.
Absolutely unhinged behavior.
I mean, I went through his trash too, but I was looking for pizza.
Wow... HA!!! Thumbs up on the joke.. you got my cackling at my desk with that one, seriously!
Was not expecting that punchline AT ALL... LOL!
eyeheartawk
#1 Enworld Jerk™
Thanks.Wow... HA!!! Thumbs up on the joke.. you got my cackling at my desk with that one, seriously!
Though, it's not a joke, I was just LARPing as a goblin.
Agreed. For the vast majority of users lacking a title like"it director" or something office is a thing that comes with their pc or they simply never have it unless pirated. The free & more recent web versions have probably put a big dent in the pirate chunk over the years because most people simply don't need office.
Even the office subscription offers a lot beyond office & that makes it worth the sub for people who don't really need office like 1Tb(not a typo) of cloud storage that can sync across devices automatically or on demand for like 6$ to make people who don't need office to find it worthwhile.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
So having read Matt's depressing tweets, I just can't bring myself to agree. But it's not Matt's take on WotC's corporate overlords that I find fault with, but rather the entire idea of the people they're pursuing.
I mean, maybe I'm just old and out of touch, but I have a hard time believing that there's actually an incoming surge of potential customers who are that young, that rich (in terms of disposable income), and that ignorant/disengaged from what's going on.
On the issue of disengagement alone, I keep hearing that zoomers (or Gen Z, or whatever they're called) are supposed to be the most tuned-in, most moral, most outraged generation. They're the ones who like to quote "how dare you?!" at companies who act unethically, who claim to care most about the environment, and who think that capitalism is inherently immoral. Not to mention they're consistently portrayed as the generation that's most plugged into social media, listening to what everyone else is saying outside of "trad" sources. Wouldn't they be among the most likely to know what WotC is doing to the OGL? Wouldn't they be the most likely to care?
And spending $30/month of their parents' money? Really? Are parents these days bankrolling their tween- and teenaged children that much? I know it's not an apt comparison, but when I was that young I got a fraction of that amount for doing a boatload of chores, plus whatever money I got on my birthday and the holidays. But today's kids are being given that much more money by their parents? Presumably the same parents who are supposed to be among the customers that WotC apparently doesn't care about alienating?
I know it's easy to mock a "kids these days" sentiment, but for cryin' out loud, aren't Hasbro's execs old and out of touch also? Because the market segment they're looking to capture seems like more of a fantasy than anything they publish.
I mean, maybe I'm just old and out of touch, but I have a hard time believing that there's actually an incoming surge of potential customers who are that young, that rich (in terms of disposable income), and that ignorant/disengaged from what's going on.
On the issue of disengagement alone, I keep hearing that zoomers (or Gen Z, or whatever they're called) are supposed to be the most tuned-in, most moral, most outraged generation. They're the ones who like to quote "how dare you?!" at companies who act unethically, who claim to care most about the environment, and who think that capitalism is inherently immoral. Not to mention they're consistently portrayed as the generation that's most plugged into social media, listening to what everyone else is saying outside of "trad" sources. Wouldn't they be among the most likely to know what WotC is doing to the OGL? Wouldn't they be the most likely to care?
And spending $30/month of their parents' money? Really? Are parents these days bankrolling their tween- and teenaged children that much? I know it's not an apt comparison, but when I was that young I got a fraction of that amount for doing a boatload of chores, plus whatever money I got on my birthday and the holidays. But today's kids are being given that much more money by their parents? Presumably the same parents who are supposed to be among the customers that WotC apparently doesn't care about alienating?
I know it's easy to mock a "kids these days" sentiment, but for cryin' out loud, aren't Hasbro's execs old and out of touch also? Because the market segment they're looking to capture seems like more of a fantasy than anything they publish.
Somebody needs to check on Coville and make sure he's okay. I'm dead serious about this - I don't know him personally but if I saw that on a friend's feed and I knew they were looking at their own life plans being disrupted by events the way his have, I would definitely check on them.
But he needs to hang around with more 13 year olds. He also needs to work for some big corporations (or at least become more cynical about what they can actually accomplish - I actually don't recommend anyone work for them if they can avoid it).
Hasbro's plans for D&D might be everything he says. It doesn't mean they'll succeed. In fact, it's very likely they'll fail. Because Hasbro is paying way too much attention now to D&D. Their plans have to actually pay off big. Not break even. Not be mildly profitable. But big pay off - year to year growth that's bigger every year than the last. It's very unlikely that their D&D plans are going to work out that way. And when they don't quickly work the way they want them to the plan will be abandoned and something else will take its place. Big corps have a lot more pressures that keep them from sticking to long term plans that deviate from their status quo than smaller companies do, and Hasbro hasn't shown themselves to be the exception to that rule.
Also - if you're in the boat that Coville is and you think that Wizards will inevitably "destroy" D&D with the younger generation, then it's time to stop teaching them to play D&D and start introducing them to RPGs through other games and supporting other games. Wizards doesn't own the concept of RPGs, and there are plenty out there to choose from. You don't even have to stray far from D&D to find a suitable replacement - Level Up, 13th Age and Pathfinder are all in that same zone to one degree or another (among others) and all of their publishers have basically positioned themselves as moving forward with some kind of open licensing in one way or another no matter what Hasbro does.
But he needs to hang around with more 13 year olds. He also needs to work for some big corporations (or at least become more cynical about what they can actually accomplish - I actually don't recommend anyone work for them if they can avoid it).
Hasbro's plans for D&D might be everything he says. It doesn't mean they'll succeed. In fact, it's very likely they'll fail. Because Hasbro is paying way too much attention now to D&D. Their plans have to actually pay off big. Not break even. Not be mildly profitable. But big pay off - year to year growth that's bigger every year than the last. It's very unlikely that their D&D plans are going to work out that way. And when they don't quickly work the way they want them to the plan will be abandoned and something else will take its place. Big corps have a lot more pressures that keep them from sticking to long term plans that deviate from their status quo than smaller companies do, and Hasbro hasn't shown themselves to be the exception to that rule.
Also - if you're in the boat that Coville is and you think that Wizards will inevitably "destroy" D&D with the younger generation, then it's time to stop teaching them to play D&D and start introducing them to RPGs through other games and supporting other games. Wizards doesn't own the concept of RPGs, and there are plenty out there to choose from. You don't even have to stray far from D&D to find a suitable replacement - Level Up, 13th Age and Pathfinder are all in that same zone to one degree or another (among others) and all of their publishers have basically positioned themselves as moving forward with some kind of open licensing in one way or another no matter what Hasbro does.
