WotC Anyone Else Tired of the Wizards Bashing?

[ReshiIRE]

I am getting pretty tired of people policing others criticising a company for doing wrong or not living up to the expectations their customers have.

You can crticise people for being unconstructive or being hateful or threatening towards the company's staff, but my god, the actual company itself is not as fragile as to find streamers talking about or criticising their actions over the past few months - especially since a lot of those streamers are the same ones who've supported the company for quite literally years.

Hell, this seems to be a huge issue on the internet now - you can't criticise billion dollar corporations or quite literally billionaires or powerful politicians, oh no, that's bashing, that's just chasing clout, that's tiresome.

I want more positive myself, and actively try to get away from naughty word like this. But without going too much further into real world politics - sometimes, people or corporations you like or agree with do or say bad things, and are going to get criticised for it. They may even get criticised for it months afterwards, and have people wary of trusting them or think they haven't change.

This may affect products you still like or want to buy, or causes you support.

Get. Over. It. People have the right to do that - and you have the right to not listen to it. But have a bit of grace and try to correct falsehoods or misinformation, or make positive arguments.

Don't do this. Don't say people should shut up because you don't agree with their complaints, when you full well know they have actual facts and arguments to back them up.

Make positive changes to yourself and try to help the people around you. Discuss things you want to discuss in [+] threads. Hell, maybe this entire thread is a sign that topics around WoTC's business practices shouldn't be in this forum, and should be elsewhere.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I don’t really care one way or the other about people talking, being critical about, or “bashing” WotC and their actions, I can’t say that I agree with everything they are doing/have done. Sometimes I’ll see what’s going on, but if I become too stressed or simply think I have nothing to gain from the conversation I can just step away. But when I go into a thread talking about the Pinkerton incident, or about to OGL, or about criticizing WoTC or what have you, I know what I’m getting into when I read them and I can stop reading when I want to. Nothing wrong with wanting to passionately and respectfully talk, debate, and criticize

The problem for me arises when the criticism and “bashing” gets dragged into threads unrelated to the news and drama of the company themselves, and derails those conversations. And it becomes upsetting when some people even go as far as to insult or make negative implications against those who aren’t interested in engaging with that line of conversation that weren’t part of the current topic, and who actually want to talk about a game we like to play. Some conversation get so aggressive that I don’t even feel comfortable talking about the game at all, despite my excitement for my sessions or the new play test material or what have you. Talking about the revisions alone can be enough of a mine field as it is.

On a semi-related note, since this happened to me IRL with someone during the OGL debacle, it’s more then a bit infuriating to have someone bash me for playing D&D, and even go as far as insult my intelligence or call me lazy or what have you because they don’t like WotC or the game, only to promote a different game for me to play or DM for like it’s nothing. That doesn’t make me want to learn to play that game FYI, it makes me want to avoid it with a ten foot pole.

 

[Osgood]

While some of their missteps have warranted the responses, I completely agree that there seems to be way too much outrage for outrage's sake toward WotC.
It seems like some companies and you tubers are being opportunistic--I bet Paizo started their plans to make a new Pathfinder the day the OGL announcement came out. Some individuals are just nursing old grievances that have nothing to do with the current controversy to prove they were right all along. Then others just seem like want to lash out at the big evil company--This last always confuses me most because Hasbro is pretty low in the evil scale compared to say the fossil fuel industry or big pharma, and not even that big (about the size and revenue of the division of the subsidiary of the company I work for). But I get it, when you are on top, everyone comes for you.

 

[bedir than]

It seems like the easiest way for the WotC-bashing to stop would be for WotC to stop screwing up so badly with their own communities.

Is that easier than the people who respond to an announcement about a charity product for sick children with "Are the Pinkerton's going to assault me if I buy this?"

 

[mamba]

This is some pretty dystopian stuff.

He didn't commit a crime. If he had, the actual cops would have been there instead.

If you ignored my emails about something, me hiring some people to show up on your doorstep and to lie about you committing a crime would rightly have you outraged.

I am not sure they lied about it being a crime. He can be in legal jeopardy either way, and that might have been all they said. Accessory to a crime by not cooperating… Also, he did not believe it anyway, so it cannot have been that terrible / scary.

I don’t know, if someone comes to my house and tells me unless I give them a thousand bucks they will perform a dance that will result in a meteor wiping out my house, I would not feel terrorized, and this does not feel all that different based on what the guy said. He never believed it and was not terrorized either.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Is that easier than the people who respond to an announcement about a charity product for sick children with "Are the Pinkerton's going to assault me if I buy this?"

Seems like to easiest way to stop that from happening would be to stop sending Pinkerton's to customer's houses, but that may be just me.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Oh no! A video hyping their product!

That criminal monster. Now I'm glad they sent hired goons to his door!

Like... you guys know WotC itself admitted this wasn't a good idea or justified, right?

Maybe if they put sending hired security forces into the creative commons, it'd all be forgiven...

 

[mamba]

I am getting pretty tired of people policing others criticising a company for doing wrong or not living up to the expectations their customers have.

yeah, and I am tired of people making mountains out of every molehill around. Including calling something policing when all it is, is disagreeing

Get. Over. It. People have the right to do that - and you have the right to not listen to it.

you should listen to this guy

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don’t know about where you live but the cops don’t have time or the resources to get involved in these kinds of things. Court action doesn’t work because it isn’t timely enough and is a crap shoot anyway.

So your response to "this is dystopian" is "what we need is vigilante law?"

WotC always had the choice of ignoring it. These are not secret prototype cards that were never going to see the light of day. They aren't nude photos of Elminster (Elminster gives those out for free, even after you ask him to stop). These are products that he got a little early.

OH, NO.

This isn't a Liam Neeson film. No one needed to bring in anyone with a particular set of skills to get back some cards that hit the streets a few days early.

"We don't like it, so we sent over private security" is not a legal justification.

So if you think you’re being wronged

They weren't wronged. They had an inventory control issue that this guy didn't cause.

he’d gotten his greasy mitts on something

Jesus, man, he's a customer who was the beneficiary of a problem he didn't cause.

and then made hay out of it. Unashamedly. This guy didn’t just enjoy the cards and tell his friends - he went on the internet and made advertising revenue off videos of it.

A culture that WotC has encouraged and profited off of as recently as earlier this year, when they sent out boxes of exclusive swag to other YouTubers.

He was doing some freelance marketing that WotC wasn't firmly in control of. That's it.

This situation evokes similar (but lesser) feelings in me as when I hear a burglar has injured themselves in someone’s house and is suing the owner. I just can’t muster up the sympathy for him.

HE DIDN'T COMMIT A CRIME.

 

[Oofta]

So this is the other side of the coin for this thread. You've got complaints about WotC bashing - and here we have dismissal of someone's reportedly stressful experience. A "polite home invasion" that, according to one source, got his wife crying. Do you normally cry at "polite home invasions"? Or is it possible that the "home invasion" wasn't quite so "polite"?

So on one side, people who constantly bash or complain about WotC.
And on the other side, people who will constantly minimize any shenanigans that WotC pulls.

The story, as far as I can tell based on this article, is that WOTC tried to contact the person multiple times by phone and they never picked up. Agents knocked on the door and asked to talk to them by name (for some reason asking for the person by their full name was upsetting). The agents told the person that the cards they had were not legal and that the cards needed to be returned or they could face legal penalties. After the person returned the cards they should not have had, they were sent replacements. The person's wife was upset by this.

The Pinkerton's did not enter the house, although reportedly they did not let the wife close the door on them. Nobody likes having people show up at their door and being told that they're doing something they are not legally allowed to do but no "home invasion" alleged.