WotC Anyone Else Tired of the Wizards Bashing?

[Oofta]

You do you, but sometimes a more clear picture of who someone is (including corporations) is from what they try to get away with before they get called on it and are forced to retreat.

So the fact that they listened to customer feedback and changed directions is somehow a bad thing? They would have been shooting themselves in the foot, but nobody external to the company had the power to force them to do anything. Interesting spin.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I am pretty tired of them repeatedly bashing themselves in the crotch in a loud, public manner.

 

[Oofta]

You can't attack the company withput attacking the game.

I strongly believe we need to have a strong central RPG in the industry to preserve the health of RPGs overall. There are benefits to having a pillar around which the industry rotates. Right now, we have several groups that see blood in the water and would rather take a shot at being the next D&D, regardless of the odds, than ride on the coat tails of D&D and WotC. At the same time, Hasbro would rather optimize profits from D&D for a short period and drive it into the ground than play the long game - as they unerstand that if D&D dies off substantially, another opportunity will take the place of it.

It sucks.

I guess I just don't see any ongoing focus on short term profits. There was an obvious focus on short term profits decade or so ago when they released a monster manual without the metallic dragons so people had to buy MM2 if they wanted those. It was apparent in the book-a-month club and the release of 3.5.

Now? When it comes to D&D I simply don't see it.

 

[mamba]

Yeah, but we're in a small hobby industry, not petrochemicals. WotC is the 800 lb gorilla so of course it's going to take a lot of criticism. And with recent blunders, they're earned it. I might agree that there are individuals who have an outsized mad-on for them and could stand to lighten up, but we're just a few months past WotC's attempt to blow up their own support ecosystem. Let people stay mad a little while before you sweep everything under the carpet.

Whether they earned it is up for discussion. Sure they got deserved backlash to the OGL, but releasing the SRD under the CC took care of that as far as I am concerned.

Sending the Pinkertons, I am not sure I even care. The guy refused several contact attempts, WotC then sent someone who was harder to ignore and talked to him and maybe gave him a bit of a scare (he does not sound to me like it did scare him, he does say it scared his wife however) and ultimately they got their product back and he got the product he should have gotten in the first place. It's not like they beat the guy up.

What all this unnecessary outrage does is make me tired of hearing it, which does not bode well for future justified outrage, and it makes me not listen to those that do basically nothing but rage. It instead does make me feel sympathetic towards WotC (the designers really), something I did not expect to happen after the OGL debacle.

As to Paizo, I do not blame them for moving away from the OGL. While some stuff is under CC now, I am not sure how much they rely on older SRDs which are not.

 

[billd91]

So the fact that they listened to customer feedback and changed directions is somehow a bad thing? They would have been shooting themselves in the foot, but nobody external to the company had the power to force them to do anything. Interesting spin.

No, the fact that they tried to screw over their support ecosystem in the first place was the bad thing. The fact that they were forced to retreat from that position is them salvaging the situation from their own short sighted and stupid behavior.

 

[Rushbolt]

The latest spin from Paizo that the short-lived lifespan of their Core Rulebook is all Wizards' fault is especially stretching the truth. Many of their players have expressed all the issues that have needed errata and the company themselves have admitted a huge 640 page rulebook wasn't a good idea. As far as protecting themselves if Wizards' revokes OGL 1.0a, I still believe Pathfinder Remastered would be in trouble because they still have six little words: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. Removing the 3-18 scale doesn't change that. I also think they are smart enough to know that and expect players to just buy their excuses.

 

[Oofta]

No, the fact that they tried to screw over their support ecosystem in the first place was the bad thing. The fact that they were forced to retreat from that position is them salvaging the situation from their own short sighted and stupid behavior.

Some individuals in the corporations, likely without talking with people on the D&D team that knew the product better, pushed something stupid. It was eventually rejected by WOTC after a great deal of pushback from people both inside and outside the company.

You may not like how the sausage, or decisions on a corporate level, are made but end of the day all I care is about the end product. In this case the end product was better than what we had before.

 

[Jer]

I am pretty tired of them repeatedly bashing themselves in the crotch in a loud, public manner.

This. I'd really like them to go a few months without doing something dumb.

 

[mamba]

As far as protecting themselves if Wizards' revokes OGL 1.0a, I still believe Pathfinder Remastered would be in trouble because they still have six little words: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. Removing the 3-18 scale doesn't change that. I also think they are smart enough to know that and expect players to just buy their excuses.

No, that is not something that would get them into trouble, not if the OGL were revoked and certainly not now that the SRD is under CC.

 

[mamba]

This. I'd really like them to go a few months without doing something dumb.

Given that someone is always mad at them when they do anything or not do something, that is basically impossible