D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[Remathilis]

I feel I'd be more inclined to check out MCDM if Matt would keep his mouth shut. Stuff like this disinclines me from checking out his work.

 

[mamba]

I feel I'd be more inclined to check out MCDM if Matt would keep his mouth shut. Stuff like this disinclines me from checking out his work.

I like him, but here he was definitely wrong

 

[Malmuria]

It's almost like WotC cannot win.

Don't spend money and they get accused of "mothballing" the edition and not spending any money on developing the hobby.

Spend money and they get accused of wasting money and spending too much...

And people wonder why WotC does not ever directly interact with fans anymore.

I think there is space to try to neutrally analyze the direction of the corporation. Wotc's own metrics of "winning" have more to do with dollars and cents, and in my analysis they seeming to be currently winning a lot, while seemingly wanting to win much much more through more extensive monetization. In this case it's not about them spending money or not spending money, but about what they are spending on, and whether those risks will pan out for wotc's bottom line, and further what the impact will be for dnd and the hobby as a whole. I don't think it's somehow unwarranted to speculate about whether or not that gambit will be successful or not (with the caveat that it's all speculation).

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

Actually I kind of agree with him, in the sense that what we've got has actually been consistently VERY CONSERVATIVE and not just in terms of the number of releases, but in what kind of content actually gets released. Remember when they UA'd prestige classes that would have plugged into the multiclassing as specialized dips for character progression? Or when the mystic class was going to exist? They did eventually release an Artificer I guess, but ultimately they've mostly released races and subclasses.

Part of me feels like they spent the last decade expecting the bottom to fall out of the RPG space and wanting to not commit too much in terms of expanding the game, then belatedly play catch up when they realize that there's a market that actually wants the content.

 

[darjr]

I feel I'd be more inclined to check out MCDM if Matt would keep his mouth shut. Stuff like this disinclines me from checking out his work.

Hmm.

Let me just say that Flee Mortals is truly a great product. Made by some awesome folk.

This thing he said isn’t hateful or punching down either. He’s just wrong, in my opinion.

What’s more much of the money MCDM makes truly seems to go into the products and paying people decently.

However I’m the last person that would stop you from following your heart.

 

[Hussar]

sure, but not all criticism is that. I do not think anything I posted here comes even close to that, yet people go ‘WotC cannot ever win’ when there is at best mild criticism here. Saying they follow a high risk / high reward strategy without me seeing a need for that is about as mild as it gets while still falling under the umbrella of criticism

This is a fair distance from where you started.

And, frankly, has WotC done ANYTHING that you haven't "mildly" criticised in the past, say, five years?

 

[mamba]

This is a fair distance from where you started.

no, that is pretty much exactly where I started

They will probably spend more on the VTT than on HAT too, and an MMO would cost even more, so at a minimum they went with the high stakes approach. Either they win big, or they lose bigger than D&D ever has before

agreed, that probably factored in. I am not saying it has to fail, only that it is a high risk / high reward approach when others were abailable.

They clearly have some info we do not that went into this, but that does not really change the approach they took, or what alternatives there were. It’s a matter of priority.

And, frankly, has WotC done ANYTHING that you haven't "mildly" criticised in the past, say, five years?

definitely, I liked the MotM changes over Volos, out of the 'tempests in a teapot' I only criticized the OGL one, not e.g. the Pinkertons, where I actually said the guy was in the wrong and defended WotC, and as recently as a week or so ago, I wrote that their subclass selection for 2024 is pretty good, some misses, but by and large ("40 out of 48 ain't bad"). Plenty other examples too, I just do not praise everything they do

 

[Parmandur]

Actually I kind of agree with him, in the sense that what we've got has actually been consistently VERY CONSERVATIVE and not just in terms of the number of releases, but in what kind of content actually gets released. Remember when they UA'd prestige classes that would have plugged into the multiclassing as specialized dips for character progression? Or when the mystic class was going to exist? They did eventually release an Artificer I guess, but ultimately they've mostly released races and subclasses.

Part of me feels like they spent the last decade expecting the bottom to fall out of the RPG space and wanting to not commit too much in terms of expanding the game, then belatedly play catch up when they realize that there's a market that actually wants the content.

Or perhaps they have been serving the general TTRPG market rather than pursuing niches...?

 

[Parmandur]

Hmm.

Let me just say that Flee Mortals is truly a great product. Made by some awesome folk.

This thing he said isn’t hateful or punching down either. He’s just wrong, in my opinion.

What’s more much of the money MCDM makes truly seems to go into the products and paying people decently.

However I’m the last person that would stop you from following your heart.

It's mostly just so strange and bizarre to hear coming from a guy who is so smart?

 

[Hussar]

Honestly @mamba, and this isn’t directed at you, it’s the never ending stream of negativity. It just never, ever stops. Nothing is ever just ok. Everything has to be a mistake.

It just gets so tiresome after a while. You’re right and I shouldn’t have pointed at you for this. You just happened to be the fifteenth caller so you won.

It is all just so exhausting after a while. Ever since 4e was announced it’s been a constant mosquito whine in every single conversation regarding anything WotC does.

Is going all in on the vtt a good idea? Dunno. Going to wait and see. Otoh, considering the years of people crapping on WotC for vapourware promises, I’m kinda happy they are going full throttle on this. Can’t say they’re half assing this. They are diving in with both cheeks.