D&D 5E D&D Creator Summit--'D&D Beyond And Beyond'

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This presentation is by Dan Rawson and Marjory Laymon, moderated by Sara Chaffee.

I see a live view of what I assume is WotC's offices (the caption says 'Game Room'). Muffled voices talking as people wander around.
  • Dan Rawson talks about his start in D&D. Introduces the team present: Dan Rawson (SVP of D&D), Marjorie Laymon (VP D&D Beyond), Pat Backmann (Sr. Product Manager), Jared Wasdin (Product Manager), Elliot Spilk (Associate Product Manager), Sarah Chaffee (Community Manager).
  • What is D&D Beyond? The official gateway to D&D for content, news, offerings. The WotC D&D site is being deprecated and DDB is taking over.
  • As the official home for D&D, DDB wants to be expansive. Content, tools, VTT. It's an amusement park. A whole ecosystem for the community.
  • What have they been up to? Integrating with WotC since being acquired last year. Digital content drops, plus stability and performance work. 4.5 million users creates system challenges.
  • What's next? Improving play/prep, mobile play, new player onboarding, open to partners, backend tech stuff.
  • Partners and publishers--early stages of what that could look like, welcome feedback.
  • (Q&A section begins--It's really hard to make out anything anybody is saying).
  • Discussion about global communities, content for different people across the world.
  • Homebrew and marketplace features. Make homebrew creation and sharing easy.
  • Mobile site and app versions of DDB are different--can functionality be added to the app?
  • Digital content in other languages and ASL? Is something they are actively trying to figure out.
  • Future of D&D in print is very bright. Millions cherish the books and the tabletop and they want to support that. Digital is as well as not instead of.
  • WIll DDB marketplace be monetized? That is absolutely the intention. Creators can offer their products for sale. Accessible, open, and available to creators.
  • Will existing settings remain open to DMs Guild/DDB marketplace creators with the launch of OneDnD? "The goal is more not less." I think that was the entire answer to the question.
  • Equitability of product pricing globally. Not something they've tackled yet, they appreciate the concern, and something they need to approach.
  • Older editions in DDB? That's been discussed, but there are no plans right now. Possibility, not a 'no'.
  • Does that include problematic elements of old products? They'd use the mechanical rules, not the 'content'.
  • Preserving WotC's DnD website resources as it migrates to DDB? Not sure what the actual question or answer were! Can't make it out!
  • How VTTs and content will interact? They want content and access to be as broad as possible. They will continue to partner with great VTTs.
  • Will there be any mentorship on content creation for the third party marketplace? (There's a situation where somebody in person asks a really long question, the digital attendees can't hear it, then one of the presenters summarises the question [I think], but it's not always clear what the answer is.)
  • Will the VTT be on consoles? Other technical requirements? Intent -- early in development -- is to play on PC, console, and mobile. Sequencing won't be everything on Day 1. Goal is to make it available on as many platforms as possible.
  • Back to legacy content being on DDB--any content will go thorugh robust review to ensure it is appropriate and inviting to everybody. Means bringing legacy content over is a lot of work, and they won't bring them over without dong that work.
  • Gaming store accounts and events--that's a strategy that is underway.
  • Continue to lean into D&D in schools. Working on content for children.
  • And that's the session over, and my coverage done! The next one will be the afternoon Virtual Tabletop session, covered by Beth Rimmels, in an hour or two.
 

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"Content creator" is a widely-used term for people who create social media content.

"Influencer" is increasingly a pejorative/negative term that people are starting not to want to self-apply, and is these days often used with overtones of contempt.

It's only in the D&D ecosphere that having a "creator summit" that initially did not include indie/third party publishers and designers would be seen as controversial (tbh WotC should have anticipated that and gotten ahead of it but, you know, it's WotC).
 

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It seems that their focus is less on actually speaking with content creators (I.e., small companies who publish 3pp 5e content more than just one or two things), and more inviting people with the largest followings to get their message out. I.e., a PR stunt rather than an actual summit of content creators.
‘Content creator’ isn’t being used in that way. It means people who create content about D&D—YouTubers, streamers, podcasters, etc. language changes—that’s what the term means. That’s as distinct from ‘publishers’. There’s not much point railing against it. :)

I don’t have access to a list of who was present, but I know of at least some publishers who are. It’s a mix of both.

Most larger 3PPs don’t need to be at this—they plan stuff a year or two out. Being present won’t affect their plans any more than reading about it the next day would (and there’s nothing really concrete being unveiled that would dramatically affect their plans).

My interest was as a news site, not as a publisher.
 






That is a big oversight. Among the popular D&D influencers on YouTube, he is fairly level headed and adult. He gives that community a whole lot more balance and offsets some of the brasher/clickbaity/sensationalistic tendencies of that group.
Mike Shea fills a similar role, but I agree, one can never have too many adults in the room.

And, more cynically, WotC ought to be quietly trying to boost the level-headed folks as opposed to the "I predict doom every week and make frowny faces in my thumbnails" crowd.
 

Content Creator has been the term for YouTubers and the like for a long time. IG has influencers. YouTube, has creators, and Tik Tok has both.

No the heck it’s not. They create content relating to D&D. It not being gaming supplements doesn’t make them liars for calling themselves creators.
I didn't call them liars, so you can relax. Creating a video of a review of D&D material is not a D&D creator. It's a youtube content creator, but not a game creator (really, Youtube or whoever really should have come up with a different title). I'm talking about game content. If you're not actually creating any content for the game, you can't call yourself a game creator. Just like if I never actually writing anything, I shouldn't be calling myself an author. How many of us kept saying LaNasa wasn't an actual publisher because he never created or published anything until just recently? Same thing.
 


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